We sent out the word in our village that our clinic would be doing lice shampoo treatments. Dozens of children raced to get in line, and waited more than an hour! It was amazing how much they loved the shampooing, and we think part of it was the luxury of a nice shampoo, and the loving care given by the staff and our friends from New Mexico who are here helping out this week.
We did find some very sad and serious cases – some children had such infestations that the lice and eggs were matted down thick, as if they hadn’ t had their hair cleaned in months. Some others had bloody scabs and infections brought on by so many lice digging in, and perhaps scratching. They need another treatment, antibiotic cream and they definitely need antibiotics immediately.
In the photo below, Karalee Rosenberger uses a very fine-toothed lice comb to comb out
hundreds of dead lice and lice eggs from a little girl’s hair. A lice shampoo treatment requires a thorough shampooing with special shampoo, then the child must sit and wait with the shampoo in his/her hair for ten minutes, then a thorough rinsing, then another ten minutes to “comb out” the dead lice and the lice eggs. (Yuck!)