Grim pictures show hair lice living in boy’s EYELASHES

A Chinese boy needed his eyelids disinfected after head lice were discovered living in his eyelashes. 

Grim images show the extent of the 3-year-old’s infestation, which left him ‘itching’ his eyes.

The toddler, from Zhengzhou, loved playing in sand and often rubbed his eyes with dirty hands. Yet doctors did not say if this was to blame.

His itchiness was ‘resolved immediately’ after doctors successfully removed the lice. 

He is also not thought to have passed the lice on.  

Publishing skin-crawling images of the lice in a medical journal, doctors stated they believe the case is ‘extremely rare’. 

On arrival to the hospital, his parents told medics he had suffered from itchy eyelashes in his right eye, which also produced ‘abnormal’ and ‘visible’ liquid for over a week. 

Doctors noted his upper eyelid was red and swollen. He had no known allergy history. 

His grandmother had scraped the affected area of the eyelid with a coin, the boy’s parents also said. 

But no other family members, including his parents or sister, had suffered similar symptoms.

Medical tests revealed the boy’s vision was unaffected. 

A slit lamp examination, however — a common test to examine the structure of the eye — revealed translucent parasites creeping slowly along the eyelashes. 

Writing in the American Journal of Ophthalmology Case Reports, medics said the child was ‘diagnosed with head lice infection of the eyelashes’.

The date of the incident was not revealed in the case report by doctors at The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. 

Lice are tiny insects which live and lay their eggs in hair, but are normally found on the scalp. 

Their empty egg cases, which stick to hair, are commonly known as ‘nits’. 

They can quickly multiply and cause widespread itching and inflammation of the scalp. 

In severe cases, infections can also occur as result and are generally caused by scratching the head with dirty fingernails or if faecal matter from the lice gets into a scratch.

However, infestations can be resolved with over-the-counter medications.

The NHS advises all people who come in contact with an infected person to check if they have caught the bugs themselves because they spread so easily.

Clothing, bedding and other products exposed to lice also need to be laundered in high heat in order to kill the bugs.

Doctors said they ‘carefully trimmed’ the boy’s affected eyelashes first, to help remove the nits effectively. 

The boy’s eyelids were then disinfected with an iodine solution using cotton pads. 

After the lice and nits were removed, his symptoms ‘were completely resolved immediately’, medics said.

He was advised to apply a low strength erythromycin ointment – used to treat bacterial infections of the eye – to suffocate any remaining nits. 

Doctors also gave the boy eye drops to apply for two weeks before returning for a follow-up examination. 

According to medics, head lice infestation of the eyelashes could easily be misdiagnosed as a common eye condition known medically as blepharitis.

While it’s not usually serious and can often be treated by washing your eyelids every day, it also causes swollen, itchy eyelids.

However, misdiagnosis can prolong patients’ pain and even affect their vision, doctors said.  

Medics should ‘not only consider common inflammation and allergies, but also be alert to parasitic infections’, when treating patients with itchy eyes and abnormal secretions, they warned.