- On hirsute person can crawl where body hair contiguous with pubic hair (up the belly, back, & down the thighs)
- Also other close skin-to-skin contact
- Occupying a bed of infested person within 24 hours
Incubation period from contact to infestation — 2-3 weeks, for the 1 or 2 acquired lice to lay eggs (nits), & the nits to hatch.
Diagnosis- Seeing scurrying louse (usually hard to notice)
- May see tiny white nits firmly attached to hairs
- Distinguish nits from lint, etc., since nits can’t be flaked off
- May need magnifying glass; much smaller than the nits of head lice.
- Maculae cerulae — small bluish macules stuck on skin (from enzymes in louse saliva)
- Preparations are NOT ovicidal; nits hatch in 10 days
- Must apply a second treatment, exactly 11-12 days later, to kill any new nymphs before they mature (in >12 days) to lay new eggs.
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