Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Case of the Week 507

This week's case was generously donated by Dr. Kamran Kadkhoda. The following was seen crawling out of the nostril of a young child from Southwest Asia. Identification?



12 comments:

Blaine A. Mathison said...

Out of the kid's nose? Must be a booger bugger!

Either that or this kid has a really 'lousy' head cold...

Ok, I'll leave it at that for now and reply later after the more serious replies come in...

Richard Pollack said...

This is an adult male louse of the genus Pediculus. Most likely, it is a head louse. How'd it get in the nostril? It didn't crawl there by itself, but it might have had help. It might have been on a finger that carried it into the nostril, or it might have been inhaled and become entrapped. Head lice are found on the scalp hair, and their close cousins, the body lice, are on clothing. Such lice would not infest a person's nose.

Unknown said...

Pediculus humanus

Anonymous said...

OK, most likely a male Pediculus capitis as his obvious copulating organ and rounded rear end show. The exit site is uncommon, the boy could pick his nose and introduce the louse into a over heated living quarters and therefore it has to make a quick exit. This theory seems to concur with Blaine's "booger bugger" beast.
Florida Fan

Old One said...

The story goes that Dr. Roger Price, while researching body lice, had a difficult time finding willing "homeless" folks to act as a food source for his lice. When he did find some they proved unreliable because of the rigorous feeding schedule of the lice. Dr. Price solved his problem by breeding Pediculus that feed on rabbit blood. An interesting twist on lice host specificity.

I believe this species to be Pediculus humans capitis.

The little rascals have legs plus do you ever know where a childs hands have been?

Anonymous said...

pediculus humanus corporus ?

Unknown said...

I agree

Unknown said...

Agreed

Anonymous said...

I agree

Idzi P. said...

Pediculus humanus.
Can Pediculus humanus capitis or corporis be distinguished morphologically? I thought not...
And yes I agree: one never knows where those little hands have been wandering...
For example: with Enterobius infestation, one can find eggs practically everywhere... take that as a clue...

Aaron Odegard said...

Aww Blaine. Haha. I love it!! Always arthropoding around ��

Hunlang said...

Pediculus pubis