Pediculosis Palpaberarum

Abstract

The history of lice infestation in the human population is as long as 10,000 years. It has three major types: the one infesting body, head and pubic/ axillary area.
The occurrence for pubic lice (Pthirus pubis) is much less than for head and body one. It is commonly known as crab louse or crab. Pubic lice are khown to involve two to over 10 percent of human population globally. Typically, they infest the hair of the pubic and perianal regions but they rarely involve other areas such as hair of the beard, moustache, eyelashes (pediculosis palpaberarum), armpits, and sometimes the chest and abdomen. They are haematophagous (feeds on blood), and strictly host specific to humans.
Its life span is less than a month. An adult female louse lay about 30 eggs, upto 3/day. The egg is attached to the shaft of a coarse hair and with the skin temperature these hatch in 6-8 days. If the lice are forced off the human host, they will die within 24-48 hours.

The picture shows a louse on left, before and on right, after sucking blood from the eye lid of her human host.