头虱在学校复课后又出现了——彭博社

虱子不仅从大流行的低谷中恢复过来，而且正在蓬勃发展。

摄影师：Laurie Dieffembacq/AFP/Getty Images嗨，我是莱斯利，写信自芝加哥。我在这里告诉你，所有这些后大流行社交活动都是有代价的：虱子。但在此之前…

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虱子的复仇

我要告诉所有父母一个坏消息，尤其是那些有孩子在托儿所和小学的父母。虱子正在卷土重来，这要归功于大流行期间被搁置的所有事情的恢复。想想课后活动，比如体操，以及过夜、旅行和生日聚会。虽然很难追踪病例，而且没有非常可靠的数据，但疾病控制和预防中心估计美国每年有600万到1200万学龄儿童感染虱子。现在免责声明：虽然患虱子当然很麻烦，但并不危险，也不意味着某人不干净。偶尔，虱子的寄生会因为过度搔痒而导致头皮感染，但仅此而已。虱子的主要问题在于它很恶心，而且像野火一样蔓延。

Lice isn’t just back from a pandemic lull, it appears to be an even bigger problem than before Covid shut the world down. In Chicago, where I live, cases have surged in the past month, according to Eduart Tare, co-owner of Hair Butterflies, which provides lice and nit-removal services in its salons in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and the nearby suburb of Oak Park. The business has seen about 300 cases in the past 30 days, compared with a norm of 100 to 200 cases a month before Covid lockdowns began, says Tare, who started the business with his wife about 14 years back.

“It is coming back,” Tare says, “and it’s going to get worse.” Tare predicted infestations will increase further in 2024. More travel, vacations and time with friends and family usually equals more infestations, he says.There are plenty of over-the-counter treatments, but the problem is that many of those $30 kits of Rid and Nix lotions and shampoos don’t kill the eggs, aka nits. You’ve got to comb them out. And combing each last nit out of hair is laborious and time-consuming. It can take upwards of two hours for a client with long hair, says Tare. His business uses an oil-treatment to kill bugs and offers in-home delousing that starts at $125 an hour.For many families, the lotions, sprays and treatments are prohibitively expensive. That makes treating the bugs especially tough for schools, which deal with classroom outbreaks often, sealing coats and winter hats inside plastic baggies to help prevent the spread. So is there any good news, you ask? Yes! Parents don’t need to go nuts fumigating the home when trying to eradicate lice. The CDC says don’t waste a lot of time and money on housecleaning when the sesame-seed-sized bugs can only live without a host for a day or two. There’s also an over-the-counter lotion called ivermectin that keeps hatching eggs from surviving, so leaving some behind in the hair after treatment shouldn’t be a problem (yes, that’s the same drug that some reported using as an unproven Covid treatment).And for prevention? Tare doesn’t recommend anything fancy. He says spray made with peppermint oil works well. But there’s something even easier. Just keep long locks in a ponytail, he says. — Leslie Patton

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