Nix Ultra Tackles Super Lice Epidemic

This week, OTCs In Action are targeting the not so nit-picking issue of super lice. For the past few months, the head-scratching solution to the problem of how to defy new bionic strains of lice has plagued traditional OTC pesticide marketers.

New evidence from The Journal of Medical Entomology (JME) found that head lice have developed resistance to two types of common OTC insecticide treatments for lice infestation. Over the past year, 98% of head lice in at least 42 states managed to grow gene mutations that enabled the (super) lice to become resistant to pyrethrins, pyrethriods and permethrin.

However, the invasion of the mutant lice shall no longer reign. Prestige Brands have launched a new product, Nix Ultra, to tackle the super lice epidemic. Nix Ultra safely kills both traditional and super lice, as well as their eggs.

The combination of mineral oil and dimethicone provides optimal coating and coverage of both lice and hair, creating a slippery surface so lice and eggs, even the pesky super strain, can be easily removed.

This is one of just a few super lice OTC treatment products available on the US market and, with super lice rapidly spreading in the US, there certainly (for now) seems to be a safe and reliable solution for worried parents.

OTCs in Action Episode 63: Surrender, Super Lice

 

It’s an election year in the US, and there’s no end of conversation about the controversial candidates, and the Red states (more Republican voters) and Blue states (Democrat); but which are the Pink and Green states? Well, parents and caregivers in the Pink are actually feeling blue (or seeing red) because these states have high populations of treatment-resistant lice, otherwise known as Super Lice. Across the country, Super Lice are causing school nurses, teachers, parents and caregivers to tear their hair out with frustration as nasty nits keep reappearing in spite of treatment, with one classroom infestation familiar to this writer clinging on for two months this winter.

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Kyong Yoon, Ph.D.

This week OTCs are in Action in Tarrytown, New York, where Prestige Brands is attacking Super Lice with new non-toxic, pesticide-free Nix Ultra. “Years of exposure to treatment have given rise to head lice with genetic mutations that make lice resistant to standard OTC medications,” says Dr Tanya Remer Altmann.”

“The Nix Ultra 2-in-1 system is effective against super lice. The combination of mineral oil and dimethicone provides optimal coating and coverage of both lice and hair, creating a slippery surface so lice and eggs, even those difficult to kill Super Lice, can be more easily removed by the Nix professional comb.”

This is OTC research & development at its best – providing a solution for people with a health-related problem with an easily accessible and affordable product.