Centro de Investigaciones de Plagas e Insecticidas, Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo para la Defensa, (UNIDEF-CONICET), Juan Bautista de La Salle 4397, B1603ALO, Villa Martelli, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Grupo de Neuroetología de Insectos Vectores, Laboratorio Fisiología de Insectos, Instituto Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental y Aplicada (IBBEA, UBA-CONICET), Departamento Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental (DBBE), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, C1428EGA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Parasitol Res. 2021 Feb;120(2):443-450. doi: 10.1007/s00436-020-07038-y. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
Pediculosis is a worldwide disease affecting school-aged children produced by the presence of the head louse, Pediculus humanus capitis De Geer, an obligate ectoparasite on the human scalp feeding exclusively on blood. Transmission occurs primarily through direct physical head-to-head contact. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a variant of the coronavirus. Therefore, on March 18, 2020, the Argentinean government established mandatory isolation for an indefinite period. This obligatory isolation interrupted regular classes avoiding direct contact between children, thus affecting the dispersal route of individuals and the evolution of head louse populations. In this study, we evaluated through an online survey how confinement affected the prevalence of lice during lockdown compared to the situation prior to confinement. The survey allowed to discriminate the different control strategies, the number of treatments, and the amount of insects recorded by parents. Data of 1118 children obtained from 627 surveys were analyzed. As the main result, it was observed that prevalence of lice decreased significantly from before (69.6%) to during (43.9%) COVID-19 lockdown. Moreover, head lice infestation was more effectively controlled in households with up to 2 children in comparison to households with 3 or more children. This is the first study that analyzed the prevalence of head lice during COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this work demonstrated the impact of social distance in the population dynamics of head lice and how it could affect the control strategies in the future.
头虱病是一种全球性疾病，影响学龄儿童，由头虱（Pediculus humanus capitis De Geer）引起，头虱是一种在人类头皮上的专性外寄生虫，专门以血液为食。传播主要通过直接的头部接触。2020 年 3 月，世界卫生组织（WHO）宣布 COVID-19 疫情为大流行。COVID-19 是由 SARS-CoV-2 引起的，SARS-CoV-2 是冠状病毒的一种变体。因此，2020 年 3 月 18 日，阿根廷政府规定无限期强制隔离。这种强制性隔离中断了正常的课程，避免了儿童之间的直接接触，从而影响了个体的传播途径和头虱种群的演变。在这项研究中，我们通过在线调查评估了禁闭在多大程度上影响了禁闭期间与禁闭前相比头虱的流行率。该调查允许区分不同的控制策略、治疗次数以及父母记录的昆虫数量。从 627 份调查中分析了 1118 名儿童的数据。作为主要结果，观察到从 COVID-19 禁闭前（69.6%）到期间（43.9%）头虱的流行率显著下降。此外，与有 3 个或更多孩子的家庭相比，有 2 个孩子或更少孩子的家庭对头虱感染的控制更为有效。这是第一项分析 COVID-19 大流行期间头虱流行率的研究。此外，这项工作证明了社交距离对人群中头虱动态的影响，以及它如何在未来影响控制策略。
