A Survey Of Nepalese Orphanage Children's Susceptibility to lice borne diseases, scabies and bed bugs.

To survey orphanage children in Kathmandu Valley for the prevelance of louse borne typhus, trench fever and louse borne relapsing fever within head lice and body lice in correlation to the incidences of Scabies infections and bed bug infestations.

Head lice, body lice, and Scabies spread through the sharing of objects such as hairbrushes and clothes as well as due to living in close, dense quarters. As a result, orphanages are more susceptible to higher incidences of lice infestations and Scabies infections because of increased sharing habits between children due to the limited resources available per child.

In addition we want to know if sharing habits between children change pre-monsoon season versus during monsoon in that children are unable to wash their clothes more readily during monsoon season and rely on sharing clothes more readily.

After collecting the arthropods, and examining them for the prevalence of these various spirochetal complexes as well as observing the sharing habits between children. We want to propose to the orphanages possible vaccinations to budget for as well as suggest methods to change behavioral sharing patterns between children in order to reduce lice epidemics.

We also plan to go to provide information via pamphlets to local volunteer organizations about our project's findings so they can further distribute this information to the local orphanages they are working with.

We also plan to obtain funds to provide each child with their own brush and a box to place their personal hair and clothing accessories.