(Photo: Joan Sorolla)
Head lice require direct contact to easily move from host to host. When teenagers press their heads together to take a group selfie, they provide bridges that lice can easily cross.
Dr. Sharon Rink, a pediatrician in Appleton, Wisconsin, says that she's seen a surge of teenage head lice cases. She advises that teenagers keep their heads apart a bit when taking group selfies in order to reduce the likelihood of lice transmission. WBAY reports:
“People are doing ‘selfies’ like every day, as opposed to going to photo booths years and years ago,” says Rink. “So you’re probably having much more contact with other people’s heads.”
She says you should keep a little distance between you and your friends heads when taking a selfie, just in case one of them has lice.
“If you have an extremely itchy scalp and you’re a teenager, you might want to get checked out for lice instead of chalking it up to dandruff.”
-via TYWKIWDBI