I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this.
For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:
"Head lice are annoying, but they don't actually make people sick, and children with the condition should not be kept away from school, according to new guidelines from a leading group of pediatricians.
The guidelines, from the American Academy of Pediatrics, say that although head lice can cause itching, they are not known to spread disease, and the insects are not very likely to spread from one child to another within a classroom. Rather, it is usually direct head-to-head contact that spreads lice.
For this reason, "no healthy child should be excluded from school or allowed to miss school time because of head lice or nits," the guidelines say. (Nits are the eggs of head lice.) Most doctors who care for children agree that school policies requiring children to be free from nits before returning to school should be abandoned, the AAP says.
In addition, screening kids at schools for head lice does not reduce the occurrence of the condition in classrooms over time, so routine screenings at schools should be discouraged, the AAP says. However, parents should still regularly check their children for head lice, and school nurses may check children who have symptoms of lice.
The new guidelines are an update to previous recommendations on head lice, issued in 2010."
I remembered back when I was in primary school (probably around 9-10 years old), I was sitting behind this girl with long hair and I was shocked at seeing lice crawling all over her hair. It still gives me the creeps whenever I think about it. But well, the girl is still attending classes then despite having lice on her head.
I personally feel that if a child has lice, the child must remained at home until all lice are gone. Spreading or not, just the thought of the lice crawling around on the hair is really really making me uncomfortable. As a parent, you wouldn't want your child to be infected with it, so why expose other children with lice right? I'm not sure how it goes with other countries' policies though, so would be interested to learn more on this.
Do share your thoughts on this!
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