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In the News

head lice make headlines

This section includes news articles that have been published about the Lice Clinics of America network of our specific clinic location.

Lice Clinics of America–Northern Illinois Reports Lice Activity Increase During Pandemic

With Families Isolating at Home, Lice Infestations Are Intense

Vernon Hills, IL – July 29, 2020 – Lice Clinics of America–Northern IL reported that their two clinics in Vernon Hills and Spring Grove, which are part of the 200 clinic Lice Clinics of America network, saw an increase in lice treatments of 18 percent from April to May of this year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Infestations of lice affecting entire families have been more severe during the pandemic, likely due to the fact that families have isolated at home together.

“We were deemed essential by the state and able to stay open throughout the pandemic, after making the necessary adjustments,” says Erin Hawn, who owns the Vernon Hills and Spring Grove locations with her husband Nick and belong to the Lice Clinics of America (LCA) network of clinics. “Families have been so thankful we were still available when they needed us. We’ve found that lice are spreading even more quickly than usual among family members while they’ve been stuck at home together for extended periods of time.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Head-to-head contact with an already infested person is the most common way to get head lice. Head-to-head contact is common during play at school, at home and elsewhere, such as sports activities, the playground, slumber parties, and camps.” The CDC estimates 6-12 million infestations occur each year in the U.S. among children 3-11 years of age.

Dr. Krista Lauer, Medical Director of LCA, states, “If you have children who are elementary and middle-school ages, it’s important to take some immediate steps to either prevent your children from being infested or to properly treat and kill the lice before they spread to others in your family and social group.”

Dr. Lauer says, “First, don’t panic, and second, don’t be embarrassed. A head lice infestation has nothing to do with personal hygiene, or the cleanliness of your environment. In fact, with recent shelter-in-place orders, head lice infestations more easily spread to everyone in the household due to close proximity.”

She recommends the following to make sure lice aren’t living in your child’s hair:

  1. Inspect your own head and your child’s, especially if your child has an itchy scalp. Look for eggs, nymphs and adult lice. One adult louse can lay about a hundred eggs during her life span. That’s a lot of new lice.
  2. Call the parents of your child’s friends and have them check for head lice, remembering that earlier intervention can help to reduce the infestation level. With shelter-in-place orders being lifted, kids are playing together again, and summer camps are in session.
  3. If you see lice—or if you are unsure whether you have lice—visit a professional lice treatment center such as Lice Clinics of America for a screening.
  4. Traditional over-the-counter treatments contain pesticides that are ineffective. Lice have evolved into “super lice” and have developed resistance to those pesticides. Find a treatment that is safe and effective. Lice Clinics of America has several options to choose from.

“All technicians and clients wear masks in our clinics, and we sterilize all touchpoints in the clinic between clients, and we provide hand sanitizer for staff and clients,” says Hawn. “The nature of our business means that we already had stringent sterilization procedures in place, but we have increased our safety protocols and limited clients in the clinic to one family at a time. In addition, we offer tele-tech video consultations at no charge and contactless curbside pickup or delivery of our over-the-counter treatment products.”

Lice Clinics of America is the world’s number-one service brand for treating head lice. The company’s revolutionary heated-air treatment is guaranteed to kill lice, lice eggs and super lice in a single, one-hour treatment. Lice Clinics of America offers professional lice screenings and a full line of top-rated lice treatment and prevention products including professional solutions for parents with children at home.

For more information visit www.liceclinicsofamerica.com.

Lice Clinics of America® Launches ‘Schools Without Lice’ National Educator Partnership in Northern IL

New program collaborates with educators and school nurses to eradicate lice in schools

Vernon Hills, IL – August 28, 2019 – Lice Clinics of America, the world’s largest network of professional urgent care head lice treatment centers, announced that the company is launching its nationwide program titled ‘Schools Without Lice – National Educator Partnership’ in Vernon Hills and Spring Grove, IL. The program’s mission is to assist teachers and school nurses in being better prepared to help students in schools across America stay lice free.

Supplying the most up-to-date information and resources to nurses and educators about prevention and treatment options is key to helping them provide students with quick relief from the stress, fear, embarrassment, and discomfort of a head lice infestation. In addition to offering free access to educational materials, the program includes free lice screenings and treatments for school nurses and teachers.

“We couldn’t be more excited to launch this new program to help schools and educators in our community handle the problem of lice in schools,” said Erin Hawn, owner of Lice Clinics of America – Northern IL. “Lice are a common nuisance in schools and for students and families, with kids missing up to 24 million school days each year due to lice. That is a real problem and needs a real solution. By providing free educational resources to schools and free lice care for teachers and school nurses, we hope they are better equipped to help students and families address and handle the issue of head lice.”

Since launching Lice Clinics of America (LCA) in 2014, the company has seen explosive growth and now has 330 clinics in 36 countries, with new clinics opening every month. The secret to LCA’s success is its revolutionary technology, the AirAllé, an FDA-cleared medical device. The AirAllé uses heated air to dehydrate lice and nits and is proven to kill hatched lice and more than 99 percent of eggs in a single hour-long treatment.

One in four children under 13 years of age get head lice, and that number is growing as traditional over-the-counter lice treatments are increasingly ineffective. A 2016 study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology found that 98 percent of lice in the United States are now resistant to the pesticides these products use. The immune lice are often referred to as “super lice.” Families often battle lice for weeks, failing multiple times as they try to eliminate head lice on their own.

For more information on the Schools Without Lice program, please visit https://liceclinicsnorthernil.com/swl.

New book vending machine operates on a reward-system for Woodland students

Chicago Tribune
August 27, 2019

Any student at Woodland Elementary School West who gets hungry for a good story can now go the school library and use a special coin to pick a book from a converted vending machine most would associate with tasty snacks.

But “The Inchy Bookworm Vending Machine” offers food for the brain.

The books available include “Dog Man,” “Baby Monkey, Private Eye” and “Narwhal Peanut Butter and Jelly,” just a few of the 20 titles available to students who earn the special coin. The two lucky winners during a drawing last week were second-graders YaJing Plescia and Mallory Coombes.

As YaJing put in her coin on Friday and made her selection, “How to Catch a Mermaid,” the machine did what office workers and others know all too well — it initially looked like the book was going to get stuck, but it was ultimately delivered to a round of applause.

“This is my very first time of getting something to win,” YaJing said to her mother, Julia, before the start of a ceremony unveiling the vending machine in which the second-graders used scissors to cut yellow tape wrapped around the machine outside the school library.

“Last night, she was telling me about the whole thing, and she knew exactly which book she wanted,” Julia Plescia said.

“I love mermaids,” her daughter explained.

Mallory also knew exactly what title she was going to pick: “Jada Jones: Rock Star.”

“I just looked at all of them, and I liked that one the most,” she said.

Her mother, Mai Chi, thought the book vending machine was a fantastic idea for the school to adopt.

“I was so excited for her,” she said, “Anything that gets them reading, especially in our state of technology right now.”

Dr. Lori Casey, associate superintendent of education — who is now interim superintendent for Woodland School District 50 and will take over officially next year — said the school was “super excited about this idea” that came from a parent, Candice Reimholz, who found it on Facebook.

“I just thought it was a great idea,” said Reimholz, adding that when she contacted the school, Casey loved the idea and went about finding where to get the machine. However, funding had to be found.

“I went back to Facebook and asked my personal friends and Erin Hawn of Lice Clinics of America, who I went to high school with, and she loved the idea and said she would do it,” Reimholz said.

Hawn, who started the business with her husband, Nick that has offices in Vernon Hills and Spring Grove, has her own story about how they got into the venture. She and her four daughters got lice, and “I was completely losing my sanity,” thinking they were all going to have to get their heads shaved.

She found the clinic and six months later they opened their first store. The one-day treatment uses controlled heat to dry out the eggs and eliminates the tedious combing and the pesticide shampoo treatment.

“We have a couple of bookworms at the house, and it was a no-brainer. It was something we could support and get behind,” Nick Hawn said.

“It’s a great way to get kids interested in reading,” Erin Hawn said.

Principal Ryan Wollberg said students can earn tokens for the books in two ways.

One is to get 100 ROAR tickets, which is part of the district’s PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) program that rewards good behavior. Students can purchase school supplies, snacks, gifts and now tokens for the vending machine at the ROAR store.

One hundred tickets are needed to get a token for a softcover book, and 150 entitles a student to a hardcover book.

“The second way is through positive student referrals, where students go above and beyond doing an amazing thing for someone else that someone saw them do,” Wollberg said.

Every Monday morning, school officials will pick two names from the referrals, who will receive a token for the vending machine.

“There are so many things happening in the library that promote the love of learning and the love of reading,” Wollberg said, and now they get to add the The Inchy Bookworm Vending Machine.

Carrie Kowalski, head librarian, said her first reaction to the idea was “yes — we’re doing this.”

“I just thought it was a great opportunity for the kids to have books they enjoy, and they can take them home and share with their family,” she said.

Both the principal and the interim superintendent urged everyone to keep an eye and an ear out for continuing sponsors.

“If anyone knows authors or businesses that want to get in on this, we’ll take your donations,” Casey said.

Wollberg also had some last minute advice for the two young readers, Mallory and YaJing.

“Make sure you read your book to someone,” he told them before they went back to class, to which they both shook their heads in the affirmative.

Mom of 5 Turns Lice Nightmare into Business with Lice Clinics of America® Spring Grove Clinic

Clinic provides guaranteed, one-and-done lice treatments using FDA-cleared medical device.

Spring Grove, Illinois

Head lice infamously cause stress, disgust, and embarrassment for millions of parents whose kids get infested each year. But thanks to the opening of a new Lice Clinics of America clinic, parents in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin no longer have to worry about treating the icky bugs themselves.

For Erin Hawn, a case of head lice with her fifth child was a life-changing experience. “My husband and I have four girls and one boy, and when my fifth child was three weeks old, all of us girls had head lice,” she said. “After unsuccessfully battling at home, we stumbled upon Lice Clinics of America and were all lice-free in hours. What a relief!”

“My husband had always wanted to start a business,” Erin said. “We knew this was it. Six months later we opened our first clinic in Vernon Hills.” The Vernon Hills clinic has been so successful that the couple is opening a second one in Spring Grove.

Lice Clinics of America is the exclusive provider of lice treatment using the FDA-cleared Class I AirAllé® medical device. clinically proven to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of eggs (nits) using carefully controlled warm air to dehydrate the lice and eggs. Most treatments take about an hour, and the service is guaranteed effective.

The battle against head lice has gotten more difficult in recent years as head lice have become immune to the chemical pesticides in the most popular lice products. The most recent study found that so-called “Super Lice” comprise 98 percent of head lice in most states. The pesticides used in lice products have also been linked to developmental and behavioral problems in children.

“We’re excited to bring this fast, safe, chemical-free service to Spring Grove,” Erin said. “I want every family struggling with head lice to have the same experience I did—to leave our clinic lice-free and totally relieved.”

Lice Clinics of America – Spring Grove is located at 2503 Spring Ridge Rd Suite C1. The clinic is open seven days per week by appointment. The AirAllé device treatment comes with a 30-day guarantee when all family members are treated or screened for head lice.

The new clinic is one of more than 350 clinics in the Lice Clinics of America network worldwide. With clinics in more than 33 countries, Lice Clinics of America (www.LiceClinicsOfAmerica.com) is the largest network of professional head-lice-treatment centers in the world. Lice Clinics of America and AirAllé (www.airalle.com) are brands owned by Larada Sciences, Inc.

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