Spotting Bed Bug Bites In Health Care Facilities

Spotting bedbug bites in primary care

Bryant Furlow

June 25 2011

LAS VEGAS – Until recently, bedbugs were a distant memory – the stuff of children's rhymes – but an increasing number of patients are seeking care in primary care clinics for skin lesions caused by the parasite's bites, according to a speaker at the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners 26th Annual NP meeting.
Bedbug infestations have increased 10-fold since 1999, with reports of the parasite in 28 states and four Canadian provinces since 2003, according to Douglas Sutton, EdD, ARNP, ANP-C, ACNS-BC, an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic Unversity's Christine Lynn College of Nursing in Boca Raton, Fl. But that number is likely a gross underestimate, he warned.
Because bedbugs pose no communicable disease risk to public health, infestations are not reportable to the CDC. “This makes it difficult to track the real incidence and it's probably much higher than reported,” Sutton said.
Once considered eradicated in the 1950s and 60s, bedbugs have mounted a comeback since the United States pulled the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) off the market in the early 1970s due to toxicity concerns.
But bedbugs are not just a problem in the United States. “No one is exempt,” Sutton said.
In the United Kingdom, reported infestations have quadrupled annually. Hotels are frequently the hardest-hit because of the influx of travelers from developing nations, but infestations have been reported in residential and office buildings, cruise ships and retail shops.
Between nocturnal feedings on sleeping humans, bedbugs take shelter in bedding, curtains, clothing, carpets, furniture and even children's toys. “Any dark location to wait out the day, usually close to beds,” Sutton said.
Bedbug bites look similar to scabies, but bedbugs do not live on their hosts, so clinicians are unlikely to spot a one of the blood suckers on a patient – a characteristic that can help clinicians differentiate between this parasite and other insects.
Bedbug bites can also resemble those of mosquitoes or fleas. “Their bites are painless but can trigger subsequent painful and irritating skin reactions and pruritus. Tell-tale blood spotting at the site of bites result from natural anticoagulants in the insect's saliva,” Sutton said.
If you suspect that a patient has been bitten by a bedbug advise him or her to inspect household bedding and look behind headboards for the insects, which are usually brown or red depending on the time of their last blood meal, and resemble an appleseed in shape and size. Small dark stains on the mattress and bedding – evidence of blood meal feces – are other indicators of infestation.
Remember that bedbugs are equal-opportunity parasites and do not prefer hosts of a particular socioeconomic status, ethnicity or age. A warm body expiring carbon dioxide seems to be the only criteria, according to Sutton, though movement and perspiration can also get their attention.
“Once lesions are confirmed to be bedbug bites, the priority becomes one of containment to minimize further spread,” Sutton said, adding that patients should be discouraged from using pesticides on their bedding or clothes.
Bedbugs thrive in the cold but are killed by heat and sunlight. An “old-time eradication” strategy is to “just drag your mattresses and bedding out into the sunshine for an afternoon,” Sutton said.
But that strategy will not kill the parasites living under the baseboards or in closets. “What's really required is an extensive eradication effort by professional exterminators,” Sutton said.


Sutton reported no conflicts of interest.
Sutton D. “Bedbug Invasion: Ramifications in Primary Care.” Presented at: 26^th Annual American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Conference, 2011: Las Vegas, Nevada.  
Bryant Furlow is a medical writer and award-winning investigative healthcare journalist based in Albuqu

Bed Bugs-EPA and DDT. Can We Beat These Bugs

Bed Bugs Now With Super Bug: Still Just a “Nuisance,” EPA?

by Michelle Minton on June 22, 2011 · 0 comments

in Health and Illness,Nanny State

As my colleague Angela Logomasini noted in a post in January, the EPA has rebuffed the desperate pleas of lawmakers and residents to un-ban certain pesticides for the treatment of bed bugs. When asked why Ohio’s Gov. Ted Strickland’s request for an emergency exemption to use two very effective, but banned pesticides to fight the parasites, Lisa Jackson, head administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency replied that bed bugs were simply “a nuisance.” “We’re lucky – bed bugs don’t carry disease. But if you have to sleep in a bed and worry about being bitten all night, it sort of messes with your mind. And we get that,” said Jackson. How nice.
Clearly Ms. Jackson hasn’t spent much time speaking with people who have had bed bugs. More than a mere nuisance, they can force families to shell out thousands of dollars in repeat treatments, hospital visits (if reactions to the bites are severe), medication such as antibiotics, damaged relationships, damaged psyches, and damaged careers. Despite her sympathy, Ms. Jackson denied Ohio’s request for an emergency exemption.
At the time, Jackson believed that bed bugs do not carry disease. Unfortunately, we know better now. A recent study out of Canada found bed bugs carrying the drug-resistant strain of the Staphylococcus bacterium (also known as the MRSA and a “superbug”). While they have not been able to conclusively prove that the bed bugs are spreading the disease to their human hosts, their carrying the disease while causing the host to scratch the skin certainly seems like it would increase the likelihood of infection. In an article in the June 2011 issue of Emerging Infectious Disease, a CDC public health journal, discussed the possible correlation between increasing rates of MRSA infection and increasing infestations of bed bugs.
So far, the EPA has continued to deny the requests to allow the use of effective pesticide treatments to deal with bed bug infestations. In her response to Ohio’s Gov. Ted Strickland who had requested an emergency exemption to use the chemical propoxur to treat the state’s bed bug epidemic, Jackson’s coldly replied:

Although EPA recognizes the severe and urgent challenges that Ohio is facing from bed bugs, the results of the risk assessment do not support the necessary safety findings as required by the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). In particular, the requested use presents an unacceptable risk to children who might be exposed to propoxur in and around rooms treated for bed bugs.

Jackson says this without considering the fact that many affected homes may not have children and for an utter disregard for the health side effects of repeatedly using less effective pesticides. And, as Angela noted in her post, propoxur, which can be toxic if used improperly, but has no reported carcinogenic effects and is very effective when used by a professional.
The one reasonable opposition to the use of strong pesticides that some have asserted, Jackson included, is that the increasing strength of pesticides simply encourages future generations of bed bugs to build a resistance which could amount to “a cure that’s actually worse than the disease.” Yet, it is more reasonable to assume that the larger the epidemic becomes the more opportunity the bugs have to evolve (fewer bugs means a diminishing chance that the pesticide-resistant genes are passed along).
Regardless of the good intentions of Ms. Jackson, or the original 1996 pesticides act (which some have pointed to as the cause of the bed bug resurgence), clearly the problem of bed bugs requires swift action before it becomes a nation-wide epidemic and before we see more evidence that drug-resistant bacteria are spreading via bed bugs. It’s time to let individuals to the cost-benefit analysis and decide the best course of treatment for their own lives, wallets, and sanity.

Do You Need To Remove Bed Bugs From Your Home?

Removing Bed Bugs From Your Home or Apartment

Posted on 08 June 2011

Publish Post

There’s practically nothing new concerning bed glitches and dirt mites but of which does not mean to speak about they’re all less to a pest in comparison with they’ve have you ever been. In truth the real human bed bug will be an ancient pest as well as some experts believe the prevalent bed glitches fed around the blood regarding pre-historic humans dating back Neolithic man as we were still basically caves.
As fella evolved your dog eventually moved away from rock property and into tents, then huts gradually houses, but unfortunately for those evolving Homo sapiens a lot of these so called bed pesky insects moved alongside them as well as have never ended bothering you right about this point out. These smaller nocturnal insects for the family Cimicidae just adore to feed to the blood folks humans along with other warm-blooded owners, so quite simply, all they are doing for numerous years in actual fact following the foodstuff around.
In all the 21st 100 years, both base bugs as well as dust mites are really a common problem surrounding the home. For that matter some individuals have considerable allergies against them and want to take specific precaution to prevent them gone. Dust mites cause disorders of their waste and also bed bugs adore to bite. Both can lead to allergic reactions in many folks or only an discomfort in many people. So the way do we bid farewell to bed glitches and dirt mites definately Now there could question!
But our company is living while in the new millennium almost everything is possible nowadays, including exterminating loved ones pests much like the bed insects and mud mites. Most occasions, modern loved ones pesticides show good results just great, but possibly even these really need to be used along with some warn as the ones folks liable to allergies can find that will not react properly to most of the chemicals in these items. But do not alarmed, as there are a variety products you could use and the actual store high quality or native pest manipulate agent might be in a great position to counsel you accordingly.
So how come are these kinds of little bugs a very problem in many homes Nicely, the mattress bug’s enjoy a habit of residing minute cracks and very small crevices that creates them hard to overpower. The more mature treatments that men and women used to utilise were either not too effective or we were holding out ideal dangerous. One old-time option was to cure infested air mattresses with fuel. Can you think that that!
But equally bed pests and debris mites can now and again seem not possible to eradicate within the home keep in mind the most current and soundest products. If this is exactly your practical experience, then one alternative may be to hire a reliable pest regulate agent, simply because they will surely enjoy the skills, appliances, and toxins necessary to take out your uninvited guests at once.
As just for dust mites, these are offered on virtually any slightly dusty surface at home, but not that you’re going to notice them merely 1/100th connected with an inch in length. Dust mites always feed off from pet as well as human dander (or dust), and ones own waste is a really major factor for allergies along with intensify asthma hits with individuals that suffer out of this condition. Want bed bothers, dust mites choose to bedroom since bedding and also such is likely to generate more dust when compared with other bedrooms.
The many other reason debris mites locate our properties so accommodating certainly is the temperature. An ideal temperature to get dust or even bed mites is anywhere between sixty five and 80 five diplomas, which stands out as the temperature of all homes.
If you can be having complications of either of your common bugs, try a portion of the latest products within the high highway sores initially, and if he or she don’t perform, call during the professionals prior to they lead