close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffYou can get lice by coming into contact with either lice or their eggs. Eggs hatch in about one week. Lice can't fly or walk on the ground. They spread through:
- Head-to-head or body-to-body contact. This may occur as children or family members play or interact closely.
- Proximity of stored belongings. Storing infected clothing in closets, in lockers or on side-by-side hooks at school, or storing personal items such as pillows, blankets, combs and stuffed toys in proximity at home can permit lice to spread.
- Items shared among friends or family members. These may include clothing, headphones, brushes, combs, hair decorations, towels, blankets, pillows and stuffed toys.
- Contact with contaminated furniture. Lying on a bed or sitting in overstuffed, cloth-covered furniture recently used by someone infected with lice can spread them. Lice can live for one to two days off the body.
- Sexual contact. Pubic lice usually spread through sexual contact and most commonly affect adults. Pubic lice found on children may be a sign of sexual exposure or abuse.
References
- Head lice: Fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/lice/head/factsheet.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Body lice: Fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/lice/body/factsheet.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Pubic "crab" lice: Fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/lice/pubic/factsheet.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Diaz JH. Lice (pediculosis). In: Mandell GL, et al. Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Priciples and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone; 2010. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/linkTo?type=bookPage&isbn=978-0-443-06839-3&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-443-06839-3..00293-9. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Goldstein AO, et al. Pediculosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Pollack RJ, et al. Ectoparasite infestations and arthropod bites and stings. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2898131. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Burkhart CN, et al. Fomite transmission in head lice. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2007;56:1044.
- Head lice: Treatment. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/lice/head/treatment.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Body lice: Treatment. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/lice/body/treatment.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
- Pubic "crab" lice: Treatment. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/lice/pubic/treatment.html. Accessed Jan. 20, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on