Speare, Rick, Harrington, Humpress, Canyon, Deon, and Massey, Peter D. (2014) A systematic literature review of pediculosis due to head lice in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories: what country specific research on head lice is needed? BMC Dermatology, 14. 11.

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Abstract

Background: Lack of guidelines on control of pediculosis in the Solomon Islands led to a search for relevant evidence on head lice in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). The aim of this search was to systematically evaluate evidence in the peer reviewed literature on pediculosis due to head lice (Pediculus humanus var capitis) in the 22 PICTs from the perspective of its value in informing national guidelines and control strategies.

Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL and Scopus were searched using the terms (pediculosis OR head lice) AND each of the 22 PICTs individually. PRISMA methodology was used. Exclusion criteria were: i) not on topic; ii) publications on pediculosis not relevant to the country of the particular search; iii) in grey literature.

Results: Of 24 publications identified, only 5 were included. Four related to treatment and one to epidemiology. None contained information relevant to informing national guidelines.

Conclusions: Current local evidence on head lice in the PICTs is minimal and totally inadequate to guide any recommendations for treatment or control. We recommend that local research is required to generate evidence on: i) epidemiology; ii) knowledge, attitudes and practices of health care providers and community members; iii) efficacy of local commercially available pharmaceutical treatments and local customary treatments; iv) acceptability, accessibility and affordability of available treatment strategies; and iv) appropriate control strategies for families, groups and institutions. We also recommend that operational research be done by local researchers based in the PICTs, supported by experienced head lice researchers, using a two way research capacity building model.

Item ID:	38814
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1471-5945
Keywords:	head lice; pediculosis; Pediculus humanus var capitis; Pacific Island countries and territories; systematic literature review; Papua New Guinea; Solomon Islands; French Polynesia
Additional Information:	Copyright © 2014 Speare et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Funders:	TDR the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, World Health Organisation (WHO), Tropical Health Solutions
Projects and Grants:	WHO grant 1-811001688
Date Deposited:	13 May 2015 03:40
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