Skin-crawling video shows hundreds of PUBIC LICE living in six-year-old boy’s eyelashes after doctors misdiagnosed his red, itchy skin as eczema
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Boy came to see doctors with severely itchy and red skin around his eyes
Was misdiagnosed as having eczema and treated with topical creams
After itching continued they examined his eyes closely with a dermascope
Pubic lice can be transferred to children from bedding, towels or sheets
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This gruesome video shows hundreds of pubic lice squirming in a six-year-old’s eyelashes.
The boy, who came to see doctors in Catania, Italy, had been complaining of severely itchy and red eyes, which medics originally misdiagnosed as eczema.
They were shocked when they looked more closely at his eyelashes with a dermascope – a device used by dermatologists to examine the skin closely.
The closer inspection reveaked he was riddled with crawling pubic lice, also known as crab lice for their crustacean-like appearance, and their round yellow eggs or ‘nits’.
A six-year-old boy was found to have hundreds of pubic lice and their nits (eggs) living in his eyelashes
The boy had been previously given eczema creams and antihistamines for his red, itchy eyes.
After discovering his infestation, doctors immediately treated him with a yellow mercuric oxide ointment, a cream used to kill pubic lice, which he had to apply four times daily for two weeks.
This killed the lice, relieving him of his itching and improving his red, inflamed skin.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors said children’s eyelashes represent a common area of infestation by pubic lice, known medically as Phthirus pubis, in children as they lack hairs in other body regions.
They said: ‘The lice are generally spread by close contact with infected adults.
‘Infestation with pubic lice is often difficult to identify because they burrow deep into the lid, and so it is often misdiagnosed as eczema or conjunctivitis due to an allergic reaction.’
Pubic lice are tiny parasitic insects that live on coarse human body hair, such as pubic hair, or in rare cases, in eyelashes, armpit hair and facial hair.
They have infested humans for thousands of years, with archaeologists discovering specimens in the UK as far back as the 1st century AD.
The pubic louse evolved from its ancestor, the gorilla louse, about 3.3 million years ago and adapted to live in areas on the human body with a similar density of hair to that of the gorilla.
The boy had been complaining of red and itchy eyes but doctors had misdiagnosed him as having eczema. Pictured is a pubic louse, also known as a crab louse due to its crustacean-like appearance
Doctors describing the case said eyelashes represent a common area of infestation by pubic lice in children as they lack hairs in other body regions. Pictured are the lice’s eggs, which hatch in up to 10 days
Adult lice lay their eggs on the hair shaft, near the skin, and up to 10 days later, their nits hatch into nymphs and start feeding off human blood.
They spread through close body contact, most commonly sexual contact.
It’s also possible to catch pubic lice by using the blankets, towels, sheets or clothing of people infested, although they cannot jump from person to person like fleas.
Doctors advise parents with an infestation not to let their children sleep in the same bed as them.
After a person get pubic lice, it can take several weeks before symptoms appear.
Symptoms include itching in the affected areas, tiny blood spots on the skin or underwear, scratching, and black powder in underwear.
The lice can also cause blue-coloured spots on the skin where the lice are living, such as on the thighs or lower abdomen (these are caused by lice bites)
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