The causative agent of the disease is the pubic louse (plastic louse), which can reach up to 3 mm in length (females can exceed the size of males by 1.5-2 times), lives mainly in the hair of the genitals. Pubic lice feed on the host's blood and, if there is no food, die within 24 hours. Their main difference from head lice is that head lice are less resistant to starvation and negative environmental factors. They are inactive and do not have the ability to leave the host’s body, which makes treatment of the disease easier.
Like head lice, pubic lice lay eggs (nits), which are very resistant not only to environmental factors (high, low temperature, sunlight), but also to some insecticidal drugs, which significantly complicates the treatment of phthiriasis.
Pediculosis pubis is transmitted sexually when lice pass from one partner's hairline to another. Possible spread through bedding or shared towels. Less commonly, pubic lice can be picked up in saunas, baths, massage rooms, swimming pools and other similar places.
The main factor in the occurrence of phthiriasis is lack of personal hygiene. Phthiriasis cannot be contracted from animals, since pubic lice live and feed exclusively on humans.
F0cDl7PmgXE
Symptoms of the disease
There are two main periods of the disease.
The undeniable symptoms of phthiriasis are the detection of lice on linen, bed or hair.
Diagnosis of phthiriasis
It is not difficult to identify lice pubis, since the pathogens can be seen with the naked eye. They are most often noticed on the hair of the genital area or underwear. Therefore, the only method of diagnosing the disease is to examine the patient, sometimes using a magnifying glass.
Upon detailed examination, you can notice the lice themselves, which after “feeding” acquire a dark red color, as well as nits attached to the hair. The presence of nits must be distinguished from scales in seborrhea, so the affected hair is carefully examined under a microscope at low magnification.
Treatment of the disease
The most common treatments for lice pubis are:
When applying any treatment, you need to remember a few rules:
- bed linen should be changed at least once a day;
- since phthiriasis is sexually transmitted, you need to be treated together with your partner, even if he has no symptoms;
- all clothes, bedding and belongings must be carefully treated with special products or washed in a washing machine at maximum temperature;
- upholstered furniture and mattresses should also be treated, since contact with them may cause the disease to return.
Medications
The treatment uses Pedilin, which is produced in the form of shampoo and emulsion. Apply the shampoo to damp hair, leave for 15 minutes and rinse. If the infection intensity is high, it is recommended to use shampoo in combination with an emulsion. To do this, you should first use shampoo, as described above, and immediately follow it with emulsion. After applying it, leave it for 20 minutes and wash off with water.
Paranit spray is applied to dry hair areas, lightly rubbed and left for 15 minutes, then washed with water and soap. Lice and nits die within 1 hour after using the drug. If necessary, the treatment should be repeated after 7-10 days.
Nyuda spray works great against lice and their eggs. It must be sprayed onto the hair roots of the affected area, lightly rubbed in and left for 45-60 minutes. Next, the drug must be washed off with sufficient water and soap. This spray should not be used by pregnant or breastfeeding women.
The treatment uses a concentrate to prepare the medifox emulsion. To treat phthiriasis, use 0.2%, freshly prepared emulsion. To do this, add 200 ml of water to 8 ml of concentrate. The resulting solution is applied generously to the hairy parts of the body using a cotton swab, held for 20 minutes and washed off with a sufficient amount of running water. In some cases, burning and redness may occur at the sites where the drug is applied. In this case, it is recommended to reduce the exposure (holding) time of the drug on the hair and repeat its use after some time.
It must be said that before you begin to treat pubic lice, you must carefully study the instructions included with the products. Since each drug has a number of restrictions and contraindications, it is not suitable for everyone.
I7jW-p0QhO0
Prevention measures
It is worth adhering to simple rules of personal hygiene: take a shower after sexual intercourse, change bedding and underwear on time. You need to be more careful when choosing a sexual partner and epilate problematic hairy areas of the skin.
Very often, a bloody crust forms in the areas of scratching and dandruff appears. It is worth noting that severe itching in itself is not only unpleasant, but can also cause other concomitant diseases, since the areas scratched until they bleed can become infected.
Another less obvious symptom is bluish spots on the skin, which appear for the following reason: the saliva of the pubic louse contains special enzymes that destroy hemoglobin. Hemoglobin, breaking down, produces breakdown products that have a characteristic shade and form those very blue spots (maculae caeruleae). But it is quite difficult to notice such a spot, since its size usually does not exceed the size of the louse itself.
What do you know about ? Read important information about unconventional methods.
What to do with hydrocele after surgery? about how to prevent complications and relapses?
Possible complications
As already mentioned, due to the disease when combing damaged skin areas are formed, through which any infection can easily enter the body and cause corresponding complications. As a result, patients with phthiriasis often experience pyoderma - pustular skin infections.
But much more serious is the inflammation of the lymph nodes, the formation of abscesses and the development of boils - all of this is also facilitated by phthiriasis. And the worst complication that can occur in this case is blood poisoning (sepsis). This occurs with weak immunity, when the body itself cannot cope with pustular infections.
Diagnosis, symptoms, causes and treatment
Diagnosing phthiriasis in men is not so difficult: for this a visual inspection is sufficient. However, it is necessary to take into account: if there is a possibility that the disease is sexually transmitted, doctors always prescribe additional examinations to identify other possible sexual diseases.
As for treatment, phthiriasis is relatively easy to cure. Currently, there are a large number of ointments, sprays, emulsions and other effective means for the treatment of phthiriasis. All products are safe (with the exception of some that are contraindicated for pregnant women), but before using them it is better to consult with specialists.
If we talk about special shampoos, doctors note that very often people treat them as an effective and independent means of combating phthiriasis. Despite this stereotype, Shampoos by themselves are ineffective, and they are recommended to be used as an adjuvant along with ointments.
As with any other diseases, treatment of phthiriasis with medical means is steadily accompanied by folk methods. For some reason, many people believe in the power of “grandmother’s” recipes and think that traditional medicine is no less, if not more, effective.
Once upon a time, pubic lice were actually fought with very strange and ineffective methods, but we must take into account that this was at a time when the pharmacological industry was undeveloped and the necessary funds simply were not available. For example, many used dichlorvos. Of course, dichlorvos kills pubic lice almost instantly, but if you take into account the harmful effects of this substance on the human body, it becomes clear that “the game is not worth the candle.”
A less dangerous and more natural way is to treat the affected areas of the skin with cranberry juice.
Today, doctors do not deny the benefits of this method, but it is more of an auxiliary remedy, and besides, cranberry juice can cause local burns and allergic reactions.
Prevention
Prevention of phthiriasis is primarily hygienic measures and minimizing situations in which the disease can be transmitted. Here are the main provisions for the prevention of phthiriasis:
- Pay attention to personal hygiene.
- If possible, use only personal household items and clothing.
- This also applies to bed linen: it is not recommended to sleep on someone else’s or suspicious linen.
- Selective attitude towards sexual intercourse.
- Regular replacement, washing and ironing of clothes and bed linen.
Of course, special attention in this list should be given to promiscuous and suspicious sexual contacts; ideally, it is better to avoid them altogether. But even after seemingly harmless everyday contacts with unfamiliar or untrustworthy people (for example, after a handshake or a hug), it’s worth taking a shower.
For a little information about lice and phthiriasis in general, watch the thematic video:
Central Research Institute of Dermatovenerology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow
Defense reactions of the host body:
1. Cellular:
Pediculosis
There are several types of pathogens that cause pediculosis in humans:
The embryonic period lasts from 4 days to 6 weeks, the larvae go through three stages lasting from 3 to 5 weeks each, the mature individual lives from 27 to 46 days. The oval-shaped eggs are yellowish-whitish in color and are attached to the hair or tissue villi with the secretion of adhesive glands produced by the female. The larva differs significantly from the adult in size, body structure, and the absence of a reproductive apparatus. 30 minutes after hatching, the larva begins to suck blood, and after the third molt it turns into an adult. The complete life cycle from the egg to the laying of eggs by the female lasts 15 days.
Head lice
Lice are found on the scalp, most often affecting the occipital and temporal areas; eyebrows and eyelashes can also be affected. In the presence of long hair, the process is most pronounced; this applies to a greater extent to women and children. Head lice are grayish-white individuals, the size of males reaches 2-3 mm, females 2.4-4 mm.
After 7 days, young lice (nymphs) appear, leaving empty gray-white and yellow shells at the site of development. After 10 days, the nymph can lay eggs on its own. Lice are very mobile, it is quite difficult to identify them in patients .Insects pass from an infected person to a healthy person only through close contact.
Clinical picture when infested with lice represented by papules, vesicles, erythematous spots, which occur at the sites of bites due to irritation of the skin by the products of the salivary glands. Dermatitis, eczematization, and excoriation develop. In this case, inflammation, secondary pustulization, and exudation occur. Crusts of a purulent-hemorrhagic nature, peeling, followed by lichenification and pigmentation of the affected areas of the skin appear. The disease is accompanied by severe itching.
Pustules, exudative changes, crusts formed on the scalp shrink, promote hair sticking and the formation of tangles (trichomes). Infection may occur through inhalation of dust. since rickettsia are well preserved in a dry place.
Relapsing fever caused by a spirochete (Spirochaeta reccurens), which enters the stomach of the insect with the blood and is quickly evacuated from it. However, on the 6th–7th day, spirochetes develop in large quantities and accumulate in the cavity fluid, and therefore infection can occur already on the 6th day after the insect hits the patient, when crushing him and rubbing spirochetes into damaged skin, wounds, scratches, etc.
Treatment
The most effective therapy requires shortening or shaving hair. When treating affected areas of the skin, it is necessary to get rid of i nids by combing or mechanical removal from the hair. Sanitation of lower and outer clothing and bed linen is also necessary. Anti-pediculosis drugs are represented by various drugs that have a detrimental effect on both adults and nits. Methods of treatment with kerosene, 50% soap-solvent paste, hellebore water, and karbofos solution are currently used extremely rarely due to the available more effective and convenient drugs. Highly effective means are nittifor, para-plus, itax, nix, 20% benzyl benzoate solution, antiscab and etc.
Couple-plus a drug V aerosol package containing permethrin, malathion, piperonyl butoxide. The product is left on the treated surfaces for 10 minutes, followed by rinsing and removing nits. The drug is easy to use and effective with a single use. Para-plus is also used to treat things that the patient has come into contact with.
Knicks a cream containing permethrin is applied to the affected areas for 10 minutes and washed off in the usual way, making sure to remove nits.
Antiscab a complex hydrophilic gel-like preparation containing benzyl benzoate, active substances of plant origin. This remedy is rubbed into the affected and adjacent areas on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day in the evening. Wash off on the 8th day.
Nittifor contains 0.0005% permethrin in an aqueous-alcoholic solution. The drug is used to destroy head and pubic lice and their nits. Nittifor is applied to the affected areas and after the hair has dried, 40 minutes after treatment, it is washed off with shampoo; if necessary, the treatment is repeated. Therapy pediculosis complicated by pyoderma, includes antibacterial therapy, both local and oral. It is advisable to use broad-spectrum antibiotics (amoxicillin, lomefloxacin, roxithromycin, doxycycline, etc.). External means must be used aniline antiseptics, ointments and pastes with antibiotics (gentamycin, heliomycin, lincomycin, hyoxysone, triderm, diprogent, belogent, celestoderm with garamycin, etc.).
With developed dermatitis necessary use antihistamines (loratadine, ebastine, terfenadine, ketotifen, etc.). External therapy should include steroid ointments.
Anti-inflammatory drugs that can be used are argosulfan, desitin, drapolene, etc.
Preventive actions
The most important are sanitary and hygienic measures, personal hygiene, frequent washing of the head and body, regular change of linen and clothing. As a public prevention, regular examination of people in places of forced congestion or long-term residence (hospitals, child care institutions, schools, kindergartens, dispensaries, etc.) is necessary.
If lice are detected, a thorough sanitary treatment of infected people and those in contact with them, treatment of premises, clothing, and washing of household items is carried out. Medical personnel carrying out sanitary treatment must have special clothing made of rubberized material or thick canvas. Sanitary educational work among the population and timely implementation of sanitary and anti-epidemic measures are of great importance.
Demodicosis
Demodicosis is a common pathology in humans and animals caused by mites of the genus Demodex. Currently, out of 65 species and several subspecies of Demodex, only two are found in humans: Demodex follikulorum and Demodex breis. Each species and subspecies of demodex is strictly specific to its owner.
Demodectic mange, which affects animals, forces appropriate measures to be taken in agriculture, since it is associated with damage not only to the skin and skin, but also to the internal organs of animals.
Iron mite (Demodex follikulorum) occurs most often, found only in humans in
hair follicles, sebaceous glands, and outside the host, its reproduction stops. The tick is viable outside the host at constant humidity and room temperature in the dark for up to 9 days. The optimal temperature for tick development is 3040 °C; at a temperature of 14 °C the ticks are in a state of torpor, and at 52 °C they quickly die. Insects survive in water for up to 25 days; in dry air they die after 1.5 days. The most favorable nutrient medium for demodex is vegetable oil, fat, petroleum jelly.
The pliers have dimensions of 0.3 x 0.4 mm. In the cavity of the hair follicle, females lay eggs, from which after 60 hours a larva hatches, which is motionless and constantly feeds. After 40 hours, the larva turns into nymph 1, which is also inactive and remains in the follicle. After 72 hours, transformation into nymph 2 occurs, mobile, moving along the skin, and after 60 hours, transformation into an adult. The adult re-enters the follicle and dies after laying eggs. The life cycle of a tick is about 15 days.
Clinical manifestations of demodicosis are varied. There are skin and ocular manifestations of the disease. It is necessary to distinguish between demodicosis itself and diseases the course of which is aggravated by the presence of mites. The most common diseases are presented in the table:
Treatment
External therapy includes vasoconstrictors (aqueous adrenaline-resorcinol solution, etc.), ointments containing antibiotics, mupirocin (Bactroban), erythromycin, fusidine, tetracycline ointment, antihistamines, steroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (indomethacin, butadione, orthophenic ointments, etc. ), preparations containing sulfur, naphthalan, metronidazole, 20% benzyl benzoate solution, vitamin A derivatives (retinoic ointment, retin A, airol, benzoyl peroxide (oxy-5, oxy-10), etc. For the treatment of the periorbital region, alcohol-ether mixtures are used, 3 5% trichopolum cream, sodium sulfapyridazine, etc.
The drug is effective Spregal, containing a solution of esdepaletrin and piperonyl butoxide. For demodicosis and rosacea, Spregal is rubbed into the affected areas of the skin using a tampon 1-3 times a day. Clinical improvement and recovery can be achieved in 7087% of cases. Spregal is well tolerated and does not cause serious side effects.
Prevention of the disease consists of observing general hygiene rules at home and in public places. Proper and adequate skin care, proper nutrition, and adherence to a rest regime are necessary. In case of minor changes in the skin of the face and periorbital area, timely contact with a dermatologist is necessary.
Scabies
The source of infection with this disease is a sick person, and there is a direct and indirect route of transmission of the pathogen. Direct infection is the transmission of a pathogen from person to person at the time of contact. With indirect transmission of ticks, infection occurs through objects of common and personal use.
The life cycle of a tick is represented by two periods: reproductive and metamorphic.
The reproductive cycle of the mite is as follows: an oval-shaped egg is laid by the female in the scabies duct, in which the larvae then hatch. Scabies can persist for up to 1.5 months and serve as a source of infection. The metamorphic period is determined by the appearance of a larva, which penetrates the skin through a passage and, after molting, turns into a protonymph, then into a teleonymph, which in turn turns into an adult in papules, vesicles, and on the skin.
The scabies mite has a tortoiseshell shape, dimensions 0.35 x 0.25 mm. The male is significantly smaller in size than the female.
The female moves on the skin using two front pairs of legs, which have suckers. The tick penetrates the stratum corneum of the skin using its jaws and the terminal spines of the front pairs of legs. The female feeds on the granular layer of the epidermis and makes passages in the stratum corneum of the epidermis. Eggs are laid in the passages sequentially in a row.
The incubation period of the disease ranges from 8 to 12 days. The beginning of the process is characterized by itching, which sharply intensifies in the evening.
Itching is caused by the movement of the mite, which is most active in the evening. In this case, the skin and nerve endings are irritated not only by the tick itself, but by its metabolic products, excrement, saliva, etc.
The diagnostic criterion for making a diagnosis is the presence of scabies, papules, and vesicles. The most typical lesions in the form of tracts, serous crusts, papules, vesicles appear in the area of the hands, elbow joints, abdomen, buttocks, mammary glands, and thighs. There are also erased forms of scabies, which lead to erroneous diagnosis and are often regarded as allergic dermatosis.
The clinical picture of scabies is not only the rashes described above, but also the appearance of erosions, hemorrhagic crusts, excoriations, and erythematous-infiltrative spots. When skin changes are complicated by a secondary infection, impetiginous elements, pustules, and purulent crusts appear. A complication of the disease is the formation of post-scabiosis lymphoplasia, as reactive hyperplasia of lymphoid tissue.
There are separate forms of scabies: nodular scabies, scabies in children, Norwegian scabies, pseudoscabies)
