Pediculosis corporis B85.10

Pediculosis due to infection with clothes lice (Pediculosis humanus corporis). The louse is a vector of spotted fever, febris quintana, European relapsing fever, tularemia (see Table 1).

Pediculus humanus corporis (also Pediculus vestimentorum), the approx. 4 mm long clothes louse

Dermatitis herpetiformis; eczema; age pruritus; nummular eczema; pyoderma; tinea corporis; diabetic pruritus.

Transmission of pathogens by clothes lice (not by head lice):

• Rickettsia prowazekii: see below typhus, epidemic.
• Rickettsia typhi (mooseri): see below typhus , endemic.
• Bartonella quintana: see below Febris quintana.
• Borrelia recurrentis: see below Recurrent fever
• Bartonella quintana: see below Angiomatosis bacillary

Clothing infested with lice (including bed linen, scarves, etc.) should either be disposed of or washed as hot as possible. Lice can also be destroyed by starvation by keeping the clothes in a sealed plastic bag for 4 weeks. It is easier to "freeze out" the lice by storing the clothes in a freezer for 2 days. Special anti-parasitic therapy of the skin is not necessary, as lice do not stay there after the stinging and sucking act, but remain in the clothes. Instead, a nurturing, possibly anti-eczematous treatment with weakly effective glucocorticoids such as 1% hydrocortisone (e.g. hydrogalene, R123 ).

1. Powers J et al (2019) Pediculosis Corporis. In: StatPearls Publishing May 21.