PONE-D-23-11571Comparative efficacy of chemical and botanical pediculicides in Thailand and 4% dimeticone against head louse, Pediculus humanus capitisPLOS ONE

Dear Prof.  Pinlaor

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Dear Pinlaor

I'd like to make a suggestion for the modification of the topic to- Comparative efficacy of chemical and botanical pediculicides and 4% dimeticone against head louse, Pediculus humanus capitis in Thailand

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Lines 32-33: It might be better to give a range of percentage mortality

Lines 35-36: Are you saying that none of the 26 children treated with 1% permethrin was cured after two treatments?

Lines 50-51: It does not appear in this publication that body louse feeds once or twice a day!

Lines 52-53: Does it mean that body lice were never found in Thailand?

Lines 69-70: in the reference number 20 it is rather said that…. : In treating head louse infestation, evidence suggests occlusive agents may be superior to or equally efficacious as neurotoxic pediculicides.

Line 114: Pediculicides used might be better than “Chemical preparation”

Line 121: Was only one kind of louse comb used and if yes if you could give any details about the comb

Lines 254-: It is suggested that the conclusion should be stronger than written here and should include that the most sold and authorized by the health authorities pediculicides are not effective, which would also explain the high rate of infestation of children in the country and it would be advisable to the health authorities to introduce dimethicone-based products such as Hedrin ASAP to the country.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript presents the outcomes of an important study in Thailand, where head lice infestation (HLI) is a significant problem among primary school children, as in many parts of the world. The study is mostly well-designed and well-written and its outcomes are significant as they include the first assessment results of dimeticone in Thailand, presents ex vivo results of local products used in HLI, together with efficacy of permethrin 1% among school children. The content of the study is very rich and there is a hard work in the background of the study. However, an important mistake seems to be effective in the results of HLI-positive school children investigation with 1% permethrin. The study universe had 109 primary school girls only, not any boys. In our experience, despite their short hair compared to girls, boys can also harbor head lice and transmit them to their classmates. As the boys were not investigated nor treated with 1%permethrin on Day 1 and 7, the HLI-positive girls identified on days 7 and 14 may be due to reinfestation from their classmate boys, not because of permethrin resistance. Since permethrin resistance have been reported from many regions in the world, it is not surprising to identify such a resistance also in Thailand, but the design of the study does not exclude the risk of reinfestation from classmates. This potential risk should be mentioned within the drawbacks of the study.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Comparative efficacy of chemical and botanical pediculicides in Thailand and 4% dimeticone against head louse, Pediculus humanus capitis

PONE-D-23-11571R1

Dear Dr. Pinlaor,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Joshua Kamani, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Dear sir

I am glad to inform you that your manuscript has been accepted for publication.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I think that all questions of the reviewers have been answered by the authors and accordingly the manuscript could be published

Reviewer #2: It is clear that the authors have clearly reviewed the comments of the referees, and revised the manuscript according according to their suggestions. In my opinion, the manuscript is complete now and it may be accepted for publication. It will contribute to the research and infection data in Thailand.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Prof. Özgür Kurt, M.D., Ph.D.

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