ABSTRACT
In the early 1980s, entomologists were boasting that modern medicine would soon make head lice extinct. The same experts now admit there are more head lice in the United Kingdom than at any time in recent history: an estimated one primary age child in five is affected. The independence of modern youngsters – with parents no longer washing and brushing their hair for them – is one factor which helps them flourish. The fashion for soft, spongy hairbrushes rather than old-fashioned combs is another. But perhaps the real reason head lice are thriving is the confusion about what they are, how they spread and how best to get rid of them.
