Schools face a head lice epidemic due to NHS axing treatments

Schools will face a head lice epidemic this winter due to the NHS axing treatments, a charity has warned. A change in guidance, which was rolled out over the summer to save the NHS £100 million a year, means GPs cannot routinely prescribe nit treatments that cost the health service just £4.92 a time. This will cause head lice to become increasingly common in schools, particularly in low-income areas, according to the charity Community Hygiene Concern (CHC). Over-the-counter head lice treatments can cost as much as £13 per application. It is often also necessary to treat the entire family. Head lice outbreaks usually peak in autumn when children go back to school. This is when GPs would usually prescribe hundreds of the CHC's Bug Buster kits. These include different sized combs that remove lice and nits - their empty eggs - without pesticides. Since GPs were told to stop issuing such treatments, prescriptions have fallen by 90 per cent, CHC said. And some 98 per cent of head lice are resistant to over-the-counter chemical treatments, previous research has found. Parasites are also becoming more common with nearly half of children in the UK having had a head-lice infestation over past five years, compared to as little as two per cent before.