Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite !!!!

[marmar]

ATLANTA (AP) – Hate insects? Afraid of germs? Researchers are reporting an alarming combination: bedbugs carrying a staph "superbug." Canadian scientists detected drug-resistant staph bacteria in bedbugs from three hospital patients from a downtrodden Vancouver neighborhood.

Bedbugs have not been known to spread disease, and there's no clear evidence that the five bedbugs found on the patients or their belongings had spread the MRSA germ they were carrying or a second less dangerous drug-resistant bacteria.

However, bedbugs can cause itching that can lead to excessive scratching. That can cause breaks in the skin that make people more susceptible to these germs, noted Dr. Marc Romney, one of the study's authors.

The study is small and very preliminary. "But it's an intriguing finding" that needs to be further researched, said Romney, medical microbiologist at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110511/ap_on_he_me/us_med_bedbug_superbug

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. Oh Phew. They're in Vancouver.

Far away from where the article was apparently released from.

[marmar]

2. Airplanes. Cars et all......It doesn't take long for bugs to spread.....

And just because this study was in Vancouver, what makes you think it's not the case everywhere? The bedbug problem is all over the North American continent - New York being the epicenter.

[Shagbark Hickory]

3. Good point.

:hide:
We should do something about it.

[wishlist]

4. I saw them in Colorado Springs near Pikes Peak (at a La Quinta)

I spotted them when checking into a room in Colorado Springs of all places. I always pull up the covers near the head of beds to look for them or their evidence before settling in to a room. The room where I saw them also had a distictive funky odor. It was late at night in a rainstorm, so instead of searching elsewhere I requested another room in a different building and the second room was okay.

[shireen]

5. how do you look for signs?

sounds like a good thing to be aware of .... :(