Super Lice Cases in Wisconsin

Lice has been around for years but with recent cases of super lice here in Wisconsin, doctors say it's getting harder to treat over the counter.
 

Experts say super lice causes 24 million missed school days for kids.  Super lice has been found in 25 states, including several cases in the Madison area in the last week. What makes it so tough, is that it’s resistant to your typical over the counter medications, which are only 25 percent effective against them.  Instructors at Milwaukee Area Technical College's barber school spend eight weeks out of the year-long program on how to handle clients who may have lice. Since regular treatments don’t work well for super lice, there are special measures people have been trying, including a brand new clinic that uses a heat technology. Lice Clinics of America in Pewaukee says their treatment process makes sure super lice doesn't come back, as it does with other treatments.

"The stuff in the stores and what doctors prescribe is not working. It's killing the bugs, but it's not killing the eggs. You can think you're lice free, with the stuff they give you, but the eggs are still there so not even two weeks from now from when you do it or a month from now, you have head lice again,” says Jamie Jauregui Owner of Lice Clinics of America, Lake Country.
 

"It's public safety. It's safety and sanitation. It's our health. Part of everything that we do in this class, in this school, is to learn how to detect signs, to not just protect ourselves, but the client and the public," says George Gomez, instructor, MATC Barber School.

There have been no reported cases of super lice here in our area.