Research in partnership with the British Medical Journal has claimed that common head lice are harmless, with little evidence affirming the effectiveness of insecticides on clean clothing, bedding or furniture.

The report says that excluding children from school to stop the spread of the head lice is ineffective.

The report is the product of the US website www.besttreatments.org.

The website says that lice on pillows, hats or chairs are ‘dead, sick or elderly’ and therefore cannot infect other people.

Interesting, according to the research, less than a fifth of children with the eggs of lice or nits become infested.

Specialists said traditional remedies such as malathion, lindane, permethrin and pyrethrins were effective in preventing and killing off head lice.

Dr. Ian Burrell, director of a consultancy, Insect Research and Development Limited, urged worried parents not to panic as lice was an easily treatable condition.

He urged schools to think twice before sending infected children home:

‘It is pointless sending a child home from school. If a child is infested he will have been infested for weeks.’