DATE=3-12-02

TYPE=English Programs Feature

NUMBER=7-36041

TITLE=LICE REMOVAL: ONE WOMAN'S AVOCATION

BYLINE=Adam Phillips

TELEPHONE=212-264-2148

DATELINE=New York

EDITOR=Nancy Smart

CONTENT=

_

INTRO: The pinhead sized bloodsucking parasites known as lice do more than pester people. They bite. And scratching those bites can lead to infections. Anyone with the skill and means to find and kill lice on the scalps where they live is appreciated. In Brooklyn New York, an orthodox Jewish housewife is the expert many parents turn to for help when their kids come home scratching. VOAs Adam Phillips has more.

TEXT: Nine months pregnant with her eleventh child, Abby Rosenfeld sits in the cozy dining room she and her husband have decorated with pictures of bearded Jewish saints and reassures the worried mother on the phone that her children's lice problem can be solved.

TAPE CUT ROSENFELD

"(BEGIN OPT)… Where do you live? Would you like to come by today? You got to take them out. The eggs. Right. (END OPT) … Come right over. You'll be 100 percent sure. We'll give you a good deal!"

TEXT: Ms. Rosenfeld tells the mother that lice bites are never fatal, and will even not make her kids sick. However, lice do cause itching and rashes and of course disgust for the millions whom they infest every year around the world. Ms. Rosenfeld outlines the life cycle of this tiny pest.

TAPE CUT ROSENFELD

"A nit is laid. A nit is an egg. It takes seven to ten days to hatch. Then it becomes a nymph, which is a baby bug. That lasts approximately ten days, and then it becomes an adult. And that's when they start laying their eggs.

(BEGIN OPT) The easiest time to see them is when they are eggs because the eggs don't move… (END OPT) They are little oval shapes, little teardrop shapes, beige brownish specks. (BEGIN OPT) Where dandruff has no consistent shape or size, the eggs do... (END OPT) They are not contagious until they become bugs and they can crawl from one person to the next."

TEXT: (BEGIN OPT) Ms. Rosenfeld says that when people are uninformed about lice, they sometimes employ drastic, even dangerous, methods to rid themselves or their children of the pests. She says one mother she knew even sprayed her children's heads with household insecticide trying to get rid of their lice. (END OPT) She adds that often parents act desperately out of simple embarrassment with the affliction.

TAPE CUT ROSENFELD

"…It's got nothing to do with dirt. They got it from somebody else. It's not a disease. It's not harmful." (END OPT)

TEXT: Abby Rosenfeld has been helping people get rid of lice ever since she was a teenager. In those days, she picked lice from people's hair louse by louse a tedious process. She used a variety of gooey substances -- oil, margarine, petroleum jelly, even mayonnaise in order to suffocate the tiny beasts. But today, she says uses hair conditioner a post- shampoo rinse that loosens the lice's grip on the hair.

TAPE CUT ROSENFELD

"(BEGIN OPT) I use simple conditioner (END OPT) It works beautifully. It washes out. It's made for the hair. So there is no need to go to all those oils."

TEXT: The secret to her current method, Ms. Rosenfeld says, is a special fine-toothed comb from Europe. But any fine toothed comb will work, she says, if a parent has the time and patience to use it carefully. All combs are first dipped in a liquid such as alcohol to loosen the eggs that would cause further re-infestation later on.

TAPE CUT ROSENFELD

"Simple home products that most people have in their homes can really get rid of the lice. … (BEGIN OPT)[Also] it's not necessary to pin up the hair. I find (END OPT) just working through the hair layer after layer and working the comb through (BEGIN OPT)it will be better. (END OPT) Each layer gets combed a number of times."

TEXT: But Ellen Eckelman, a neighborhood mother who had tried unsuccessfully for a week and half to rid her children of lice, thinks it took more than technique for Abby Rosenfeld to succeed in an hour and a half where she had failed.

TAPE CUT ECKLEMAN

"Let me tell you, (BEGIN OPT) she should get all the accolades she is too modest to receive. (END OPT) She was a lifesaver. She was a fear alleviator. And it was so natural. There were no chemicals. She is thorough. She has you come back a week later and she checks you thoroughly. And -- no more lice!"

TEXT: Abby Rosenfeld warns that for children to stay lice free, the lice eggs must be killed. This is done either by collecting everything that has come in contact with the child's lice-ridden hair including pillows, teddy bears, clothes, blankets and so forth and washing it in detergent, or by sealing such things in plastic bags for two weeks and allowing the eggs to hatch and die. This is Adam Phillips reporting from New York.

Neb/ap/nes