‘A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone’, the word ‘selfie’ entered the Oxford dictionary in 2014.
Since then, it’s somehow managed to become inextricably linked to another, slightly less sexy term: head louse: ‘A louse which infests the hair of the human head.’
How? Well, US paediatricians are warning that there has been a surge in the number of teenagers in need of treatment after contracting head lice – something that was almost unheard of among this age group five years ago.
Infestation used to be most common among preschool and elementary school-age children, but teens pressing their heads together to fit into group selfies has help the little bugs to spread like wildfire through schools and social groups.
Dr Sharon Rink warns:
“People are doing selfies like every day, as opposed to going to photo booths years and years ago.
“So you’re probably having much more contact with other people’s heads.
“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.”
Anyone else itchy?
