Introduction:

Head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) infestation in humans is known as pediculosis capitis. These parasites can be vectors of potentially re-emerging infectious diseases.

Objective:

To review the current literature on infectious diseases transmitted by head lice and provide a brief description of their clinical manifestations.

Materials and methods:

A literature review was conducted in the Medline, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and SciELO databases using the following search strategy: Publication time: 1938 to 2019; Publication language: English and Spanish; Search terms: "Pediculus", "lice infestations", "bacteria", "emerging communicable diseases", "Rickettsia", "Bartonella", "Borrelia", "Acinetobacter", "Yersinia", and "Colombia", and their Spanish equivalents.

Results:

Of the 110 studies included in the review, most of them were original research articles (48.2%). Worldwide, many studies have reported the transmission of Rickettsia prowazekii, Bartonella quintana, Borrelia recurrentis, Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii and Yersinia pestis, among other bacteria, by head and body lice in humans.

Conclusions.

Although infectious diseases transmitted by head lice are rare, they have the potential to become re-emerging infectious diseases in population groups affected by human migration processes, socio-political crises, homelessness, and immunosuppression conditions. In Colombia, so far, there are no studies on the transmission of these bacterial diseases by Pediculus spp., so in future studies the prevalence and epidemiological characteristics of human head louse-borne diseases should be determined.

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