- Hello Jeff - This is an important issue because bedbugs
carry diseases, such as Hepatitis B and HIV. Of course, experts claim
that there is NO EVIDENCE these diseases are spread to humans via bedbugs.
In my opinion, if a bedbug can carry the diseases above and others, then
bite humans, I am sure there is a chance, a good chance of infection.
-
- Also, it is my opinion that bed bugs are entering the
US and other industrialized countries via legal and illegal immigrants'
luggage. I found it odd that this was not mentioned in the article below.
I think that increased immigration into the US, UK and European Union
of immigrants, especially illegals, is the reason we are seeing a reemergence
of bed bugs. Of course, this is not a politically correct assumption to
present.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- Bed Bugs Find Warm Reception On Their Return To The West
-
- The Scotsman Newspaper 4-14-4
-
- Bed bugs are staging a big come-back in developed countries
around the world, including Britain, it was claimed yesterday.
-
- Once common, the blood sucking insects were virtually
driven out of bedrooms by the 1980s. But since 1995 there has been an
unexpected increase in reports of bed bug infestation in Britain, the United
States, and other developed countries. Experts say one theory is that
the creatures may be developing resistance to pesticides.
-
- The bed bug's return is revealed this month by the Institute
of Biology.
-
- Clive Boase, of the Haverhill-based company Pest Management
Consultancy, wrote in the Institute magazine Biologist: "Data from
some sources indicate that, since the mid-1990s, the numbers of reported
infestations has almost doubled annually, although numbers are nowhere
near those of pre-war levels."
-
- Bed bugs, which measure up to 5 mm across, thrive in
warm surroundings, making their homes around mattress seams, in bed frames,
behind headboards or skirting boards, and within furniture and electrical
fittings. Even when deprived of blood, individual bugs can survive a year
or more, allowing infestations to persist in empty properties or stored
furniture.
-
- In heated premises with an adequate food supply, a small
starting population of bed bugs can develop into several thousand within
a year.
-
- Various theories have been put forward to explain the
return of bed bugs in countries which had previously banished them, said
Mr Boase. It had been suggested that previously bed bugs had suffered "collateral
damage" caused by broad-spectrum insecticide sprays used against other
pests such as cockroaches and ants. Now, specific targeting of pests using
bait products was allowing the bugs to "escape". However, Mr
Boase said it was unlikely that kitchen-focused spray treatments would
have ever held bed bugs in check.
-
- An alternative theory was that the bugs were becoming
resistant to pesticides. Recently, a study from East Africa had shown
an association between the use of pesticide-treated mosquito nets and the
growth of resistance in bed bugs. The pesticide involved, a pyrethroid,
was a type widely used in bed bug sprays in developed countries.
-
- http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=419522004
-
- -- ProMED-mail
-
- The original article by Clive Boase was published in
the Biologist (see refs below), a publication of the British Institute
of Biology. The British media picked up the story and it was aired on the
BBC News on 14 Apr 2004, and summaries printed on the same day in several
newspapers including The Times and The Independent as well as in the The
Scotsman, who incidentally misspelt throughout their report Mr Boase's
name as Bose.
-
- The 2 common bedbug species that feed on humans are _Cimex
lectularius_, widely distributed in tropical and non-tropical countries,
and _Cimex hemipterus_, commonly called the tropical bedbug, is essentially
a species of Old and New World tropics, although it is found in warm areas
of some non-tropical countries such as Florida in the USA.
-
- It is true that since about 1995 bedbugs seem to have
increased not just in the UK, but elsewhere in Europe and in the USA.
-
- Several decades ago during slum clearance in inner cities
in the UK, people who were rehoused in newly built homes were again soon
pestered by bedbugs, because they took them with them in their beds, mattresses,
and other furniture, and to a lesser extent in hand-baggage such as suitcases.
-
- Although hepatitis B surface antigen can exist for about
6 weeks in bedbugs and be passed out with the feces, thereby seemingly
posing the danger that it may be scratched into skin lesions, there is
no evidence that such transmission is important, or even occurs. Similarly
HIV can survive on bedbug mouthparts for about an hour, but there is no
evidence that HIV is transmitted by the bugs. Nevertheless, repeated feeding
by large numbers of bedbugs have been reported as causing anemia in infants,
while their persistent biting can cause sleepless nights, and in some people
also severe allergic reactions. Bedbugs also feed on pigs and poultry;
_C. lectularius_ sometimes becomes a pest of commercial poultry in North
America and Europe, causing anemia in the birds
-
- Bedbugs have developed resistance to several insecticides
including, as reported in the press releases in some areas, to pyrethroid
insecticides. For example, in Tanzania, there have been reports of resistance
to alphacypermethrin and permethrin, insecticides commonly used for impregnating
bed nets for control of anopheline vectors of malaria.
-
- References:
-
- Boase, C.J. (2001) Bedbugs - back from the brink. _Pesticide
Outlook_, 12, (4) 159-162.
-
- Boase, C.J. (2004) Bed-bugs - reclaiming our cities.
_Biologist_ 54 (1) 1-4.
-
- Myamba, J., Maxwell, C.A. and Curtis, C.F. (2002) Pyrethroid
resistance in tropical bedbugs (_Cimex hemipterus_) associated with use
of treated bednets. _Medical and Veterinary Entomology_, 16, 448-451 --
Mod.MS
-
- [see also:1996 ---- Mechanical transmission by mosquitoes
(10) 19960417.0736] ..................ms/pg/jw
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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