Head Lice: Perfectly Adapted Human Predators

Lice and their treatment are presented to students in the third professional year as a portion of a four-hour required course in Nonprescription Products and Devices. Taught three times yearly, the course uses the textbook Nonprescription Product Therapeutics. The section on head lice occupies approximately 90 min-utes, and is supplemented by several learning interventions. Students view slides supplied by the Centers for Disease Control illustrating head lice, nits and nymphs. The instructor also passes dead head lice around the classroom to facilitate the student’s recognition of the pest in regard to size and color. Finally, as students enter class, they are asked to look into a microscope set to 10X with a slide of nits attached to a hair. When available, the instructor prefers to use viable nits to allow visualization of the nymph’s heartbeat. Occasionally, students may witness the emergence of the nymph from the egg case