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Head lice in progress: what could/should be done—a report on an in vivo and in vitro field study

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Abstract

Head lice infections are a growing problem in the light of increasing migration of large population as well as the increasing current refugee flows and concomitant poor hygienic conditions. These infections are associated with a significantly reduced quality of life and frequent medical consultations. The approved drugs for the treatment of head lice infections have some disadvantages in the treatment despite their good efficacy. In addition to irritant-toxic substances that can cause adverse reactions in patients, a partial development of resistance has occurred and a double application is necessary to achieve adequate efficacy. For this reason, we have decided to test a product without the aforementioned treatment drawbacks. We examined the effect of Licener® on the head lice treatment through individual therapy trials. We identified 65 patients with head lice infections for the treatment with Licener®. All patients were treated with Licener® and visited for a period of 2 weeks. Successfully treated patients had no relapses. Against the background of this study and based on the observations of our applications, we expect that Licener® could enhance considerably the therapeutic options for the treatment of head lice infections, as an alternative to classical products.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the company Hennig-Arzneimittel GmbH & Co. KG, Flörsheim, Germany, for providing sufficient amounts of bottles of the product to proceed this test (Lot 15F2202). The authors are thankful to the Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, for providing all the facilities. In addition, authors extend their appreciations to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding the work through the international research group project IRG14-23.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

    Fathy Abdel-Ghaffar & Margit Semmler

  2. El-Santa Medical Province, Ministry of Public Health, Cairo, Egypt

    Mohammed Abdel-Aty

  3. El-Fath Clinical Hospital, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt

    Ibrahim Rizk

  4. Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Saleh Al-Quraishy

  5. Alpha-Biocare GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Falk Gestmann

  6. Clinic for Dermatology, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Norman-Philipp Hoff

Authors
  1. Fathy Abdel-Ghaffar
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  2. Mohammed Abdel-Aty
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  3. Ibrahim Rizk
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  4. Saleh Al-Quraishy
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  5. Margit Semmler
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  6. Falk Gestmann
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  7. Norman-Philipp Hoff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fathy Abdel-Ghaffar.

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The authors have indicated that they have no conflict of interest regarding the content of this article. F. Gestmann is an employee of Alpha-Biocare GmbH (a supplier of Pronova Laboratories B.V.) and he also declares no conflict of interest.

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Abdel-Ghaffar, F., Abdel-Aty, M., Rizk, I. et al. Head lice in progress: what could/should be done—a report on an in vivo and in vitro field study. Parasitol Res 115, 4245–4249 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5202-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5202-3

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