Abstract
Pediculosis is a complex of three different human infestations with two species of blood-sucking lice of the insect order Phthiraptera, suborder Anoplura: Pediculus humanus and Phthirus pubis. Sometime after early humans began to wear clothes, P. humanus evolved into two clinically distinct ectoparasitic variants, P. humanus var. corporis, the body louse, and P. humanus var. capitis, the head louse. Body and head lice are usually transmitted by direct body or head-to-head contact or by sharing headgear between infested individuals and, much less commonly, by indirect contact with fomites, such as bedding, clothing, towels, headgear, combs, and brushes. Pubic lice infestations, or phthiriasis, are caused by P. pubis, the pubic or crab louse. Pubic lice are more often transmitted during sexual rather than fomite contacts. Unlike pubic lice, body lice can transmit several bacterial diseases. Homeless, immunocompromised, and refugee populations are at greatest risk for body lice infestations and epidemics of body louse–borne bacterial diseases, including the following: (1) relapsing fever caused by Borrelia recurrentis, (2) trench fever caused by Bartonella quintana, and (3) epidemic typhus caused by Rickettsia prowazekii.
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