Lice is very common,
Head lice is very common. The reaction to having it is also common: Don't say anything about it. The reluctance to tell others that you or your child have lice, coupled with the fact that many are unaware of it being a problem until it is well-developed, means that lice is always going to be hopping around.
An exemplary case of how this happens occurred recently at our Hair Fairies lice salon in CT. A mom who came in for screenings was friends with a family that had been dealing with lice for a while but never knew it. The minute the mom discovered her family had lice (during their family screening at our location) she called her friends immediately to tell them. The reaction was, "ohhh I've been battling with it for a while now too and felt like we were never going to get get rid of it". To this the mom gets really upset and asked her "why didn't you say anything to me?" The other mom didn't want to say anything because she thought that people would think she and her family were dirty.
With that being said there are a lot of people out there that are still very misinformed and this is the reason why Hair fairies takes pride in educating our clients.