Incidence and prevalence of head lice in a district health authority area.

There are very few recent studies of the incidence and prevalence of head lice in the UK. A population-based questionnaire survey was carried out in a district health authority area. Two hundred and four of 235 primary schools (87%) agreed to participate. A total of 21,556 of 43,889 (49%) questionnaires were returned by parents. Overall 438 children had head lice at the time of the survey, giving a prevalence of 2.03%; 8,059 had had lice at some time in the last year giving an annual incidence of 37.4%.