Head lice: impact of COVID-19 and slow recovery of prevalence in Cambridgeshire, UK

Abstract

Following school closures and changes in contact behavior of children and adults a reduced head louse prevalence has been reported from across the globe. In parallel, sales of treatments were observed to fall, partly because of supply problems of some products following the pandemic, but this did not appear to result in more cases of infestation. Surveys of schools in and around Cambridge, UK, found that infestation rates were significantly reduced particularly in city schools compared with similar surveys conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Contrary to expectation the number of cases in schools has only risen slowly since schools returned to normal full time working in 2022–2023.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Head lice infestation
• Prevalence
• Lockdown effect
• Schools
• Pediculicide sales