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Bizarre campaign texts parents to check for lice in kids' hair
If you thought sending a SMS in order to gain entry into a public bathroom was on the weird side, get a load of this. An outlandish campaign sparked up in the UK has been sending out weekly text messages to parents in order to remind them of the need to check for head lice on their youngsters. Cleverly coined Beat the Bugs, the program led to the discovery of six cases of lice, and when polling participants at the end of the term, the majority stated that they felt more aware about treatment / prevention and that they were now checking their kids' heads at least once per week. We can hear it now: "C'mon Jimmy, time for me to look through your locks for any critters!" "Ah, bugger." [Via Switched, image courtesy of Interior Health]
LouseBuster kills lice, is ineffective against Slimer, Gozer
We're sure Dan Aykroyd and the gang never envisioned their symbolic ghost-busting machine being converted into a lice-evicting device, but researchers at the University of Utah are doing just that. The "chemical-free, hairdryer-like device" -- dubbed the LouseBuster -- eradicates head lice infestations on children by exterminating the eggs (or "nits"), and killing enough lice to prevent them from reproducing. While the description may make some folks queasy, Dale Clayton not only supports the head vacuum, but claims that it cured his teenagers from their own battle with lice. The rake-like comb channels air from the machine into the hair, which after several half-hour treatments makes the environment too arid for lice to survive; however, the team was quick to warn parents that hairdryers weren't an acceptable substitute for the miracle-working powers put forth by the LouseBuster. Nevertheless, Clayton hopes his spinoff company, Larada Sciences, will have the presumably Bill Murray-approved apparatus on shelves soon.[Via MedGadget]
