Flea remedy `for pets not kids'

ALEX HICKEY
Steel combs, kerosene, paraffin and vinegar have all been used as home remedies to get rid of the dreaded nit but now some desperate Hawke's Bay parents are turning to animal flea treatments. The region's vets, and health experts, have warned against the potentially dangerous practice but say some parents are still using the animal products.
Sharon Marshall from Veterinary Associates in Hastings said some Hawke's Bay parents were using flea treatments which were "very effective" on animals but not suitable for human use.
The products were designed for human use, had not been tested and no clinical trials had been set up to confirm their safety, she said.
Roger McKinlay of the Hastings Vet Centre said it would be a breach of "vet ethics" to knowingly sell anything designed for animals, for human use.
However some of the remedies were sold "off the shelf" and a vet would have no influence on their end use, he said. Modern animal treatments had proven to be more than capable of ridding pets of fleas, Mr McKinlay said.
Insecticides such as Frontline were applied in liquid or spray form on an animal's back and then stored in the sweat glands and excreted for up to eight weeks, preventing flea eggs from producing viable larvae.
Some of the new insecticides for animals were more modern than some of the headlice treatment available for human use, he said.
Older treatments for fleas were no longer effective as the fleas had built up a resistance to the chemicals and he wondered whether the same could be happening to human remedies for headlice.
Mr McKinlay said he could understand why some parents were attracted by animal treatments but he strongly advised against anyone using them.
Hastings Health Centre GP Colin Jones said people needed to realise that there could be long-term side effects for humans using untested animal treatments.
"There are (headlice) remedies available that work," Dr Jones said.
He believed people were turning to flea treatments as headlice could be difficult to eliminate.
Headlice had built up a resistance to some remedies but there was another factor- "shame", he said.
Some parents were ashamed that their children had contracted the bugs and did not tell school authorities.
That meant headlice were spread throughout the school and, although the first infestation had been treated successfully, children were "reinfested", he said.s
National Poisons Centre medical toxicologist Michael Beasley said although some products made for humans contained similar insecticides to animal products, they were usually found in much lower concentrations.
The centre had received 24 inquiries over the last two years about animal flea products. Five people were reported to have symptoms, including vomiting or diarrhoea, but it was not known if those were linked.