By THE GLOW
A shocking video has emerged of a mother combing hundreds of lice out of her daughter’s infested hair. The girl appears to be around 7 years old.
Warning: this video is graphic and unpleasant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOnTF4CNEAA
Experts have said that this is an extreme case of head lice, and it would have taken months of neglect for an infestation to get this bad. Ian Burgess, Director of the Medical Entomology Centre, in Cambridge, told MailOnline:
‘This kid would have caught lice in the normal way and then the numbers just grew unchecked because nobody did anything.
“It would take a few months to get to this level.”
The video was posted in August of last year, but over the past two days it has been viewed over 4 millions times.
In the video, the adult lice have grown to the size of sesame seeds and cover the girl’s whole scalp. As the camera pans in on the lice comb, you can see the parasites wriggling.
Dr Alejandra Perotti, a lecturer of Biological Science at the University of Reading told MailOnline that when infestations get this bad, children often get sick:
“When we see children with bad infestations they are quite pale, quite quiet, not concentrating on schoolwork.
“They might be socially ostracised because other children don’t want to play with them.”
The infestation is so extreme, shaving the little girl’s head might be the only way to cure it. However, Dr Perotti also suggested that antibiotics might be a solution in such a bad case.
“All human lice have a bacterium living inside them.
“If you treat the person with antibiotics, it’s likely the lice will die, because it kills this bacterium inside of them and they can’t survive without it. Any simple, mild antibiotic will kill lice.”
Fortunately for most of us, normal lice infestations can simply be cured with conditioner and a fine-toothed lice comb, according to Victoria’s public health website.
How do you cure lice in your house?
Top Comments
The Lice Doctor Treatment is the ONLY one that works in my house. 3 children years of lice infestations and hundreds of dollars spent on supermarket & chemist brands that did not work!!!! I finally found this stuff & it is amazing!!! Conditioner only stuns the lice and doesn't get rid of or kill the eggs. That is why the infestations keep occurring in the schools. Its this myth that keeps these infestations going. That is why I think it got so bad in the schools in the last 8 years, because people think they just have to condition their kid's hair and pull the lice comb through it and they are done - NO!
Lice live for up to 24hrs after leaving the head and live in the couch, pillows, bedding & the car seats. You need to clean these or cover them for at least a day so the lice won't jump on the hair again. They also travel by static electricity and not just head to head contact.
And aren't we supposed to be lessening our use of antibiotics???
I have volunteered in an orphanage in India where literally all of the children had lice and about 20 of them would have had infestations as bad as this little girl. If you ever want to donate something worthwhile/v. practical to an organisation working with kids in orphanages, antibiotics for repeated lice problems is huuuuuuugely appreciated.