Several New York City-based delousers who screen for and treat head lice say that although business dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re now as busy as ever.
The city’s Department of Education does not keep any centralized data on lice cases, and couldn’t verify how infestations among public school children compare to past school years. But representatives for five companies that spoke to Gothamist said they are seeing worse lice outbreaks now than they have in recent years.
Lice are not dangerous or known to spread disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But they can be a headache for parents, who may be left trying to sift through conflicting advice about how to get rid of the little buggers — and prevent them from coming back.
Dr. Dawn Nolt, a pediatrician and infectious disease expert who helped craft the American Academy of Pediatrics’ latest guidance on head lice, said her biggest piece of advice is not to panic – or point fingers.
“We should not stigmatize anyone or shame anyone with head lice,” Nolt said. “It’s not a health concern. It’s not a sign of poor hygiene. It’s not responsible for the spread of any infections.”
Lice appeared to be less prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when kids were social distancing, and things have slowly been getting back to normal, said Adie Horowitz, the president and “lice diva” at Licenders. The company has lice clinics in Midtown and on the Upper East Side, where staffers carefully comb the lice out of children’s hair. Her observations line up with studies of lice outbreaks in several countries that saw steep drop-offs in 2020.
“It’s always like this in the fall,” Horowitz said. “It just hasn’t been like this for the past couple of years, so the parents forgot about it.”
But others who spoke to Gothamist said they were seeing particularly bad outbreaks.
Lice Busters, which operates delousing salons in Midwood and Park Slope, has screened children…
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