Epidemiology of pediculosis in the school-going children of district Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

The human head louse is a hematophagous obligate ectoparasite that causes dermatitis and hair loss problems in humans especially in children. In the present survey, the data was collected from school-going children in urban and rural areas of district Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan from August 2018 to August 2019. A total of 1235 children were examined including 641 boys and 594 girls. The children were divided into three groups, 4-8 years old, 9-12 years old, and 13-16 years old. Overall prevalence was recorded at 25.11% for boys and 53.36% for girls. The highest prevalence of pediculosis was found in the 9-12 years old group with 34% in boys and 70% in girls. Region-wise prevalence of lice was higher in girls (51.6%) in rural Hyderabad than boys (13.5%) in the Qasimabad region, whereas the prevalence of nits was higher in girls (80%) in rural Hyderabad than boys (54%) in Hyderabad city. The Fisher's Exact Test was used to compare the association between the conditions prevailing pediculosis and the rate of infestation in all school children, which showed higher infestation in non-dandruff (0.29), those who shared beds and combs (0.53) and those who wash hairs twice a week (0.28). A high rate of infestation was observed in girls.