Lice Outbreak Has Panicked Parents in Iran

Ehsan.Sh. FCN News Agency: The news of the death of a seven-year-old child whose only fault was infection with parasites and who became a victim of officials’ negligence and her mother’s ignorance was a shocking headline in most of the country’s media today.

This girl and her 10-year-old brother, who is still hospitalized in Babol Hospital, were exposed to danger due to severe poisoning with agricultural pesticide.

The mother of these rural children used poison to kill lice that were feeding on her children’s blood.

Babol officials easily passed by this incident. However, the media reported news that shows the spread of lice in every corner of our country has become a serious problem and has frightened families. Because the spread of this parasite could be followed by the transmission of diseases such as typhus and contagious fevers.

Investigation of conditions in a few county samples shows these concerns.

Let’s start with a city that has recently suffered casualties. Currently in Babol, 74,000 students are studying in approximately 500 schools. In this county, only 70 health instructors are responsible for students. That means, in the most optimistic case, one instructor per thousand students. Because out of this number, only 30 people work in public schools and the rest work in private schools. While the concentration of student population in public schools is higher.

According to reports, more than 5 percent of Babol’s 74,000 students are infected with lice.

In Broujerd, too, for providing services to a population of 50,000 students, there are only 7 health teachers.

Of course, this shortage has a long history in the country and is not limited to one or two provinces.

The director-general of the Health and Wellness Office of the Ministry of Education in 2014, stating that there should be one health instructor for every 750 students in schools, announced that in the most optimistic case, we are facing a shortage of 5,830 health instructors in urban schools for providing services to students in cities across the country.

Tehran residents have also been infected

This is while the spread of this parasite in the country, unlike in the past, is not limited to contaminated and unhygienic areas. To the extent that students from wealthy neighborhoods of the capital have also been infected with lice. Reports indicate that schools in Tehran’s first district have the highest level of contamination.

The spread of this parasite has become a problem for students in our country at a time when fighting it is easily possible and drug treatment is 90 percent effective.

Therefore, it seems that the unwanted infection of children with this parasite is due to factors that should be subjected to pathological analysis.

Especially since even adults are not safe.

According to Leila Malik Jamshidi, a contagious disease expert at the Ministry of Health, the current number of people infected with lice in universities in the first six months of the year has reached about 150,000.

Health and wellness are not a priority

According to FCN report, one of the factors in the spread of this parasite is the neglect of education authorities in the country in hiring health instructors and providing health equipment in schools.

There is no doubt that budget shortages in such cases are the most justifiable excuse for officials’ shortcomings.

Comparing one of the usual budgetary priorities in the country shows this justification and Iran’s lack of funds in the field of children’s health.

According to FCN report, in the current year, 100 billion tomans in budget was allocated to the field of physical education and health in education. While two years earlier, more than 6,000 billion tomans in budget was spent in the country’s cultural and propaganda sector.

The Islamic Propaganda Organization, propaganda and cultural institutions in universities and schools, state radio and television, and institutions affiliated with seminary fields are among the institutions that have control over Iran’s cultural propaganda budgets.

Scientific research shows that with the onset of winter, the spread of lice in schools increases and girls are more exposed to infection with this parasite. Especially because due to apartment-style living and wearing head coverings with headscarves, a moist and warm environment is created for lice growth. Furthermore, the use of shared gloves or combs for hair inspection by instructors is a factor in the transmission of the parasite. And this happens in schools according to evidence.

The regrettable point in this regard is the confidentiality of the statistics of those infected in different provinces. While the concerns of parents and unprofessional news coverage through social networks reflect reality.

These amateur and unprofessional journalists report that the spread of lice in the country is increasing year by year and with the reopening of schools and the onset of winter, it brings anxiety to the hearts of families.

In this situation, however, education does not have the necessary capacity to help families. Of course, parents are asked not to self-treat either. In other words, everyone should sit and wait, perhaps hoping that lice will have mercy in their hearts and stop sucking the blood of Iranian children.

Lice are an external parasite and bloodsucker of human societies that live in the head and body of humans and feed on blood.

The history of infection with this parasite dates back to prehistoric times and since the beginning of the last century, lice have been recognized as vectors of several contagious diseases such as typhus, relapsing fever, and trench fever.