This site, provides links to authoritative articles, proprietary and alternative treatments and charitable organisations involved in this field. A study of the links would suggest that there is little common ground except perhaps on the importance of combs and combing whether these be used as stand alones or as adjuncts to other treatments. Albyn, as a leading manufacturer of detection and nit removal combs , feel it is their duty to reflect these disparate views allowing companies and consumers to determine for themselves the most appropriate course of action. It has evolved in a highly specialised way for survival in the environment provided by the haired human scalp, to the extent that its survival requires it to spend the whole of its life-cycle on a human host. Lice are vulnerable to inbreeding, so outbreeding is a requirement for survival, and the urge to dispersal is strong in both sexes.
Transmission is by contact between the hair of different heads.
Head lice intermingle as a community, and one louse may spend its day on several heads. The same person can catch lice repeatedly. If not dealt with, head lice affect the carrier adversely. When feeding, the louse pierces the scalp with its mouth-parts, pumping in saliva and drawing out a mixture of saliva and blood. While humans are not born with the ability to react to such bites, repeated contact with the sensitizing allergens contained in the saliva creates an allergic reaction, so that each further bite evokes an itchy reaction.