Report: Financial pressures (page 22 of 28)
Another reason why many surgeries now advise parents to try bug busting is that they’re under financial pressures to reduce budgets. If one family member has head lice, it’s very possible that other members will also have them.
A typical NHS prescription for just one course of a malathion-based treatment for a whole family could cost up to £75. This compares to a one-off payment of just £5.99 for the Bug Busting Kit (which is also available on prescription).
So it’s surprising that there still seems to be resistance to bug busting within higher levels of the NHS. The PHMEG states: “Chemical treatment should be used when current infection is definite, since this is the only method which has been demonstrated scientifically to be effective.”
The advice to nurses on the NHS Prescribing Centre website is very similar: “A thorough treatment of confirmed cases with an appropriate insecticide is the best way to prevent head louse infection.” Prescribing Nurse Bulletin reports: “There is no good quality clinical evidence that mechanical treatment methods such as bug busting are effective.”
This distrust of wet-combing is blamed on a lack of scientific evidence proving conclusively that it works better than insecticidal lotions. But some studies comparing the two forms of treatment have been conducted.
The first took place in Wales and showed a success rate of 78% for a malathion-based lotion, compared to only 38% for the Bug Buster Kit. Which did little to improve the reputation of the wet-combing method.
