Harmful practices: Use of insecticide to treat a child with tinea capitis

Abstract

The global call for the general public and citizenry to go back to the grass-root had led to a mass increased desire for the people all over the world to go back to farming. In many localities, most available land spaces has been cleared of bushes and converted to farmlands. The different national governments has been supportive, helped in providing fertilizers at reduced costs, gave out soft loans to these farmers and even allowed their soil scientists to test the various soil samples and thereby advised on the best crops to plant locally. But the widespread bush clearing has led to changes in the bio-diversity of the lands and the possible eradication or migration of several species of wild animals and plants types. Also, these clearing of bushes causes exposure of the topsoil and leads to increased erosion and landslides in vulnerable localities. More importantly, the increased farming practices leads to the proliferation of several kinds of pests on these farms produces which in many ways impacted negatively on the final yields of the farms. This has also led to the manufacturing of several kinds of pesticides that are to be used on these farms. These pesticides contain several kinds of chemicals that are active against different types of farm pests, but that do not harm the crops themselves. These pesticides were meant for use only on the farms and not in the homes, but they have now been found for other non-indicated uses. They have been reported to be used in family homes to eradicate rodents, mosquitoes, cockroaches and even bed-bugs amongst several others. The index case report is that of the use of one such named pesticide to treat tinea capitis on a young boy by his parents with a devastating end report. Apparently, the child’s parent had applied the said pesticide on the cleanly shaved head of the boy on a daily basis for several days but only reported to the hospital when events had taken a turn for the worst. These harmful practices are seen in many communities with devastating consequences.