A Rare Case of Anemia Secondary to Lice Infestation

Lice are parasitic infections that can infect humans and survive by consuming host blood. They are most commonly associated with a lack of hygiene and occur most commonly in school-age children, homeless populations, and densely populated areas. Lice infections can potentially lead to vector-contain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCurēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 14; no. 7
Main Authors Slovin, Justin, Niazi, Bilal A, Kinkhabwala, Mayuri, Ang, Alexandria, Sirajuddin, Syed
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Palo Alto Cureus Inc 20.07.2022
Cureus
Subjects
Anemia
Blood
Case reports
Environmental Health
Hematology
Hemoglobin
Homeless people
Hospitals
Hygiene
Infections
Infectious diseases
Internal Medicine
Iron
Laboratories
Lice
Lyme disease
Malaria
Medicine
Menstruation
Pruritus
Toxicology
United States > US
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Summary:Lice are parasitic infections that can infect humans and survive by consuming host blood. They are most commonly associated with a lack of hygiene and occur most commonly in school-age children, homeless populations, and densely populated areas. Lice infections can potentially lead to vector-containing illness and are rarely complicated by acute blood loss anemia. These side effects, while exceedingly rare, are often very significant and potentially life-threatening. Here we present a rare case of severe anemia found in a patient with chronic lice colonization. We hope our findings will broaden the differential for acute anemias and raise awareness of lice infection as a possible cause of acute anemia.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.27057