'Mutant' head lice discovered in 25 states

A strain of the cringe-worthy bugs is found to be resistant to over-the-counter treatments




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Lice populations in the states in pink have developed a high level of resistance to some of the most common treatments.(Image: Kyong Yoon, Ph.D.)

Head lice are freaky enough as-is, but new research has discovered theres a strain of mutant lice that is resistant to over-the-counter treatments and theyre found in at least 25 U.S. states.

Kyong Sup Yoon, PhD, an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University, presented his findings Tuesday at the American Chemical Societys National Meeting & Exposition.

Yoon and his team collected lice samples from a large number of populations across 30 states in the U.S. They discovered that 104 out of 109 lice populations had high levels of gene mutations, which make them resistant to pyrethroids.

Pyrethroids are a group of common insecticides that includes permethrin, the active ingredient in the most common head lice treatment products sold at drug stores.

That means if you or your child contracts head lice, theres a very good chance that the widely available treatments wont get rid of it.

Its kind of alarming, Yoon tells Yahoo Health. A ton of products are not working. Its worth noting that Yoons study is ongoing, meaning these mutant lice may be in more than 25 states.

It doesnt look promising for the rest of the untested states, based on Yoons findings: Michigan is only state so far to have a population of lice that is still largely treatable with common over the counter treatments.

While the news is shocking to most people, he says it isnt to the research community, which has known for years that pyrethroid-resistant lice

Source Yahoo News