14 Jun 2006
Four out of five head lice resistant to common treatment

Humans have a remarkable tendency to over use the tools they develop - "when all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail". While this may lead to some laughable inefficiencies when building a shed, trying to use a screwdriver as a drill has the potential to destroy only the single tool so misused: it cannot destroy "the screwdriver" as a tool per se.

This is not so when dealing with living organism: Malathion was once the most common insecticide, but it's rapidly becoming completely impotent in dealing with several major varieties of pests. And it's happening because of our constant use for so many decades, and the theory of a gentleman you may have heard of: a chap named Charles Darwin.

There have been concerns for some time now about these practices, and not just with insecticides. We need to learn to walk a bit more softly, and not be so ready to use our big sticks at the drop of a nit.

Four out of five head lice are resistant to a common treatment used to eradicate them, finds a study of Welsh schoolchildren, published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. The most common types of treatment for head lice in the UK are organophosphates (malathion) and pyrethroids (permethrin and phenothrin), which act directly on the insect's nervous system.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

06:42 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link