Lice
Gail Miriam Moraru, Jerome Goddard in The Goddard Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, Seventh Edition, 2019
Pubic lice require human blood to survive. They are only found on humans and do not infest rooms, carpets, beds, pets, etc. If lice happen to be forced off their host, they will die within 24–48 hours. In one study, 200 specimens removed from a man were kept in favorable conditions for 24 hours and only one survived.41 Fisher and Morton37 reported that off-host survival time is less than 20 hours. Female pubic lice deposit their eggs (nits) mainly on the coarse hairs of the pubic area and rarely on hairs of the chest, armpits, eyebrows, eyelashes, or mustache. In very rare cases, they have been found in the scalp. They lay approximately 30 eggs during their 3- to 4-week life span. There are three nymphal molts. Nymphs look almost identical to adults, only smaller. Pubic lice do not fly, jump, or even crawl very much. They often spend their entire life feeding in the same area where the eggs were deposited. Nuttall41 reported that their maximum range is about 15 cm. Pubic lice are transmitted from person to person most often by sexual contact, although it is possible (though rare) for transmission to occur via toilet seats, clothing, or bedding.
Infectious Skin Diseases
Aimilios Lallas, Zoe Apalla, Elizabeth Lazaridou, Dimitrios Ioannides, Theodosia Gkentsidi, Christina Fotiadou, Theocharis-Nektarios Kirtsios, Eirini Kyrmanidou, Konstantinos Lallas, Chryssoula Papageorgiou in Dermatoscopy A–Z, 2019
Even though phthiriasis pubis mainly affects the pubic hairs in the groin, it can also involve the eyebrows, eyelashes, trunk, thighs, axillary areas, and occasionally, the scalp. The pubic louse (Phthirus pubis, also called “crab” due to its short, broad body and its large front claws) is an ectoparasite whose host is human, and it feeds exclusively on blood. Morphologically, it differs from all the other Phthirus species. Specifically, an adult louse is about 1.3–2 mm long, and its body is oval shaped. Moreover, its hind two pairs of legs are thicker than the front legs and have large claws for better traction. Its eggs are gray in color and are grouped in small piles at the base of hair fibers. The pubic lice are transmitted via close body contact (usually sexual) and less commonly through clothing, linen, and towels used by an infested individual. Clinical examination and history of itching are usually sufficient to establish the diagnosis. In case of diagnostic doubts, dermatoscopy may prove helpful, since it can easily point out the parasite and the nits (Figure 7.8). Similar to phthiriasis capitis, dermatoscopy facilitates the evaluation and monitoring of the therapeutic outcome, by identifying live and dead nits (Figure 7.9).
Candida and parasitic infection: Helminths, trichomoniasis, lice, scabies, and malaria
Hung N. Winn, Frank A. Chervenak, Roberto Romero in Clinical Maternal-Fetal Medicine Online, 2021
Treatment of pubic lice is usually performed with permethrin 1% lotion or pyrethrin with piperonyl butoxide applied to the affected area and washed off 10 minutes later (60). Alternative therapies include Malathion 0.5% lotion and ivermectin. Unlike head lice, a second treatment is required only after 9 to 10 days if live lice are noted at that time. A notable exception to the use of these medications is infection of eyebrows or eyelashes that are most commonly treated by physical removal of lice and nits, with application of ophthalmic-grade petrolatum ointment two to four times per day for 10 days. Supplemental measures including physical removal of nits, laundering of clothing and bed linens in hot water, and placement of unwashable items in sealed plastic bags for 2 weeks are more strongly recommended than that was the case for head lice. Also all sexual partners for the past month should be informed of their risk for infection and treated prior to resuming sexual contact. Since pubic lice is a sexually transmitted disease, it is prudent to evaluate for the presence of other sexually transmitted diseases (60). Pregnant women should be treated with the primary therapies of permethrin or pyrethrin; use of Malathion and ivermectin in pregnancy should be avoided if possible.
Factors Associated with Sexually Transmitted Infections among Users of Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing Centers in Portugal
Published in International Journal of Sexual Health, 2022
Eleonora C. V. Costa, Tânia Barbosa, M. Soares, Teresa McIntyre, M. Graça Pereira
In terms of sexual behaviors, participants had a mean of 7.56 sexual partners (SD = 12.27; range between 1 and 101). The mean number of sexual partners in the past six months was 3.30 (SD = 5.15) and very few of the participants exchanged sex for money or drugs (M = 0.24; SD = 5.15). Vaginal sex during the past six months was the most frequent sexual practice with a mean of 12.40 (SD = 23.16), followed by oral sex (M = 11.53; DP = 19.86) and anal sex (M = 5.41; SD = 13.03). Condom use in the last four sexual acts was used about half of the times (M = 2.13; SD = 1.66). Regarding STIs, a possible health outcome of sexual risk behavior, 11.9% (n = 20) reported having had a STI during their lifetime, namely hepatitis B (n = 1; 0.6%), gonorrhea (n = 10; 6%), syphilis (n = 4; 2.4%), genital herpes (n = 1; 0.6%), chlamydia (n = 2; 1.2%), trichomoniasis (n = 1; 0.6%), genital warts (n = 3; 1.8%), e pubic lice (n = 4; 2.4%). None of the participants tested positive for HIV (Table 2).
Delineating the Boundaries Between Nonmonogamy and Infidelity: Bringing Consent Back Into Definitions of Consensual Nonmonogamy With Latent Profile Analysis
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2020
Forrest Hangen, Dev Crasta, Ronald D. Rogge
Respondents indicated all STIs they had ever contracted out of 10 common STIs (“Please indicate the sexually transmitted infections you have contracted: pubic lice, scabies, gonorrhea, chlamydia, HPV, HPV with genital warts, hepatitis, vaginitis (including trichomoniasis, gardnerella, & candidiasis), herpes, syphilis”). Given the low rates of endorsement, responses on these items were converted to a single dichotomous variable contrasting individuals reporting no experience with STIs from those reporting one or more.
Reproductive and Sexual Health in Males with Physical, Hearing, and Vision Disabilities
Published in International Journal of Sexual Health, 2021
Ergül Aslan, Zehra Acar, Büşra Yılmaz
Eighty-point percent of the participants were knowledgeable about STDs. The known diseases were HIV/AIDS in 92.9%, hepatitis B in 73.3%, hepatitis C in 66.3%, gonorrhea in 57%, syphilis in 41.9%, HPV in 33.3%, genital herpes in 29.1%, chancroid in 18.6%, pediculosis pubis in 16.3%, chlamydia in 5.8%, and trichomoniasis in 4.7% of the participants. All the participants reported that they never had a STD. Table 2 shows characteristics of reproductive health according to types of disabilities.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Copulation
- Permethrin
- Pubic Hair
- Lymphadenopathy
- Hyperpigmentation
- Crab Louse
- Itch
- Sexually Transmitted Infection
- Skin Condition
- Impetigo