There has been a recent interesting email discussion on treatment of lice infestations in homeless camps.

in an effort to share our collective knowledge, fun-filled lice facts, and experience with those who may be "outside the fold", I would like to try to move the discussion to the forums here.

All guests can read the forums, and registered members can post forum topics, among other things.

So please...carry on the lice discussion either by repying here, or by starting a new thread!

Hi

I am posting here rather than replying in the emails because I know the frustration of getting forums going from my experinece nurturing along the Oxford Forum - and I also know how good forums are when they get going!!

My understanding of headlice is that the only good treatment is insecticide of some kind, repeated after 1 week. I always thought that the lice really don't live long enough off the head to worry about.

Wet combing can also be used and I have found that our clinets are quite open to doing this as a supplementary back up.

The real difficulty would seem to be coordinating getting all the heads treated at the same time - it only takes one untreated head to restart the whole cycle. In this kind of camp scenario, it might be good to have a meeting and agree to have a camp - head session, where everyone gets treated together on one evening / night - could make it a social event with food etc as a bonus!

We don't bother with clothing / bedding changes for headlice - only if clothing lice are involved.

The following is a link to the UK management guidelines.

http://www.cks.library.nhs.uk/head_lice/in_depth/management_issues

I must say that the biggeset group I ever had to treat was 8 individuals - 25 is much more of a challenge!! I'd love to hear about any special issues that people have found with their homeless populations.

Angela

I reccomends this link as a reference for lice:
http://www.bhchp.org/BHCHP%20manual/pdf_files/Part1_PDF/Lice.pdf

**This is the Table of Content of the manual for common medical problems of homeless patients (very good reference):
http://www.bhchp.org/BHCHP%20manual/pages/chapters_alphalist.html

Roberto Lopez
Puerto Rico

Here is the article that Igor van Laere had mentioned in one of the emails going around about lice. These other references have been very helpful. Suzanne is right, using the forums is easy...

Thanks to all!

Dennis Baker
Doctors Without Walls
Santa Barbara, CA

Here is the article that Igor van Laere had mentioned in one of the emails going around about lice. These other references have been very helpful. Suzanne is right, using the forums is easy...

Thanks to all!

Dennis Baker
Doctors Without Walls
Santa Barbara, CA

Here is the article that Igor van Laere had mentioned in one of the emails going around about lice. These other references have been very helpful. Suzanne is right, using the forums is easy...

Thanks to all!

Dennis Baker
Doctors Without Walls
Santa Barbara, CA