What we thought we knew about lice are all lies…
Myth 1: Lice or kuto don’t fly because they don’t have wings.
I really thought lice could fly and so if someone is infected with lice, it could fly out or get flown by the wind and transfer to one head from another.
Truth: Lice have 6 feet. They only crawl, not even hop out of one head from the other. They can do stay and live in the pillow, sofa, couch, jeepney bus or taxi seat up to 7 days to find another human host.
Myth 2: No matter how hygienic you are and no matter how many times you take a bath a day, you can still get lice.
Truth: Lice are parasites, they can be easily transmitted through direct contact with an infested person or object. Lice or kuto can live up to 30 days in a human head and that the female lice can lay up to 100 eggs in their lifetime!
Myth 3: Only kids studying in public school can get lice kids from private and exclusive school don’t.
Wrong!
If you employ a house help and this house help (kasambahay/ katulong) either goes for day-off at their place once in awhile. She could get infected with their infected neighbors or kids which in turn can get your kids and you and your family infected!
This was the truth in my case, just a few weeks ago, I was shocked to have found out that my daughter got head lice. I found out about it when I saw her scratching her head frantically. Then I realized it has been awhile since I saw her hair as neatly comb as before. My daughter have straight thick long black hair so I have to inspect her head and lo and behold! I found a lot of nicks (lisa ) and lice (kuto) and nymph (kayumad) on her head. I panicked and went to Mercury Drug to ask the pharmacist for head lice treatment shampoo. They have two choices, one was the more expensive one and stronger formulation, the other was Lamoiyan Corporation Licealiz head lice treatment shampoo.
I immediately shampooed my daughter’s hair and found about 5 big fat black lice (female) and a couple of nymps and a number of lice. I also treated her head again after two days to make sure its all clear of infestation. And because we sleep together in one room, I had to use the shampoo myself just to make sure I don’t get infected.
“Because this problem easily affects a huge number of people, I can say that kuto really is a social concern that needs to be addressed by the whole community,” said Balbina Borneo, President of MCNAP.
Head lice may not be deadly but the stigma associated with having them makes kuto infestation a public health problem worthy of concern. Large infestation on ones head can cause severe itchiness and infection of the scalp if too much scratching was done. Plus kids with kuto are subject to bullying and teasing leading them to miss school for days at a time.
That said , we, the #KilusangKontraKuto #KKKmoms went to Bagong Nayon Elementary School to witness how Licealiz goes on with their head lice prevention campaign. They held workshop for the moms and guardians of the school kids , gave away Licealiz headlice treatment shampoo to the kids and also did an actual shampooing session with the students. It was such a chilling experience to have seen how many lice they get in just one head! It’s horrific!
We were told that some people don’t even know they have lice because some gets used to the biting and the lice saliva that they don’t get the irritation and reaction of itchiness anymore.
“When I was a child, we only used suyod, which was quite inefficient in getting all the lice out. For my daughter, it was great to knw that we have something clinically tested and proven to remove lice,” Love Anover said.
As September dubbed as lice prevention month, Licealiz will continue arranging shampooing programs and activities for public school students all over the country and will be posting educational materials on head lice and how to fight them on their Facebook page https://web.facebook.com/licealiz/videos/1268699833162733/
How about you what lies about lice have you heard especially when it comes to getting rid of them? What’s your story? I would love to know on the comment section below!
Stay gorgeous everyone!