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Body lice — also called clothes lice — are tiny insects that **live and lay
their nits (eggs) on clothing**. They are parasites needing human blood to
survive, and they usually only move to the skin to feed.
That single fact reorganises everything else on this page. They are an
infestation of a wardrobe that visits a person, not the other way round.
They are one of three types of lice that live on humans, alongside **head lice
and pubic lice**. The three are different, and getting one does not mean you
will get another. Body lice can spread diseases: typhus, trench fever and
relapsing fever.
How they spread
Body lice crawl — they cannot hop or fly. They spread through physical
contact with someone who has them, and through contact with **clothing, beds,
bed linen or towels** used by someone who has them.
You cannot get lice from animals.
Who gets them
Body lice are most common in people who **cannot bathe and wash their clothes
regularly**, especially in crowded conditions. In the United States that is
most often people experiencing homelessness; elsewhere, refugees and victims
of war or natural disasters.
This is a condition of circumstance rather than of hygiene as a personal
failing, and the treatment section below is the clearest evidence of that.
Symptoms
The most common is intense itching. There may be a rash, from an allergic
reaction to the bites. Scratching can produce sores, which sometimes become
infected with bacteria or fungi. Over a long infestation, heavily bitten skin
can become thickened and discoloured — most often around the waist, groin
and upper thighs.
Diagnosis
Usually by finding nits and crawling lice in the seams of clothing.
Sometimes a louse can be seen crawling or feeding on the skin; often it takes
a magnifying lens to see the lice or nits.
Again: the garment is where you look.
Treatment
The main treatment is improved personal hygiene — regular showers, and
washing clothes, bedding and towels at least once a week, in **hot
water**, dried on the dryer's hot cycle.
Some people also need a lice-killing medicine, but it is second on the
list, not first. Where the underlying problem is the absence of laundry and a
shower, the treatment is access to them.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, via MedlinePlus.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from medlineplus.gov
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