Minot State University is dealing with an outbreak of head lice in one of the women's dormitories.
Student Health Center director Caren Barnett said Tuesday there have been about a dozen "confirmed cases" of head lice among residents. The outbreak began about a week and a half ago, she said. Public information director Mark Lyman confirmed the dorm is Dakota Hall.
Barnett said health center personnel have been in touch with staff at First District Health Unit, the North Dakota Health Department and the Center for Disease Control for advice and have provided educational information for students on how to eradicate the pests. They've held educational sessions with students in the dorms on campus about how to deal with head lice. An e-mail was sent to all students and staff on campus providing information and including links to the CDC and Mayo Clinic Web sites.
Barnett said head lice are a common problem throughout the United States, particularly among elementary school children, but they do not cause serious health problems. Head lice is not as common on college campuses, she said.
Barnett said head lice is transmitted from one person to another by sharing towels, hair brushes or combs. The bugs don't jump from one person to another, she said. She said contracting head lice has nothing to do with how clean someone is. According to the Mayo Clinic Web site, combing wet hair with a fine-toothed comb is the best way to find an active, moving louse, which is the way to determine whether a person is infected with lice. Simply finding nits isn't sign of an active infestation since nits found more than a quarter inch from the scalp have already hatched or aren't going to hatch. A moving louse is the best way to determine whether someone is infected. People infected with lice usually use shampoos with either pyrethrin or permethrin. People should closely follow the instructions on the shampoo bottle. There are also prescription medications that can be given as well as over-the-counter remedies.
All items an infected person has come into contact with need to be cleaned as well. Clothing, bedding and hats should be washed in hot water and dried at high heat for at least 20 minutes. Bedding, clothing and unwashable items should be sealed in an airtight bags for three to four days. Lice will die without nutrition within that time period. People need to vacuum affected areas thoroughly, as well.
More information can be found at (www.cdc.gov/ lice/head/factsheet.html) and (www.mayoclinic.com/health/head-lice/DS000953).
A student in the affected dorm, who did not want her name used, said the lice outbreak has been an added expense for many of the college students. She said the university has provided students with quarters to do the extra laundry. Prior to that, the students had been paying to do their own laundry. She had spent an extra $40 to wash her sheets and clothing and about $60 so far on over-the-counter treatments to try to get rid of the nits. She said she has needed three or four treatments thus far.
She said she thinks there are several more cases than the dozen that have been reported and she felt the student health center might have missed some cases initially because she felt they did fairly cursory inspections.
Barnett indicated that students can come to the health center to be checked for lice. Some students were examined Monday but turned out not to have head lice.