Alarming combo: Bedbugs with 'superbug' germ found (Vancouver)

AP/Yahoo ^ | 5/11/11 | Mike Stobbe

[markomalley]

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.

The hospital is the closest one to the poor Downtown Eastside neighborhood near the city's waterfront. Romney said he and his colleagues did the research after seeing a simultaneous boom in bedbugs and MRSA cases from the neighborhood.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Good epidemiology should answer the question of whether these bugs are serious vectors of these bacteria. Trouble is, who wants to wait while science ponders it out?

[machogirl]

If these bugs bite, suck out blood, why would scientists NOT think they spread disease as do mosquitoes?

[Former Proud Canadian]

Here is the sad part. Bedbugs are easily, quickly, and cheaply dispatched. Unfortunately the antidote to this plague is banned.

We are rapidly advancing to the 19th century.

[Hardraade]

Just super...

[decimon]

Rheum service ping.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Yeah... (sigh). DDT.

DDT was once alleged to cause weakening in the shells of wild bird eggs. There was a hysteria and it was flat banned. Even in places where wild birds never go. (If you have wild birds in your bedbugs you really got a problem.)

[RC one]

Bug bites are notorious for spreading bacteria. Cellulitis, Lyme disease, and west nile virus are a few examples. Cellulitis is frequently a MRSA infection too.

[Siouxz]

Diatomaceous earth will kill those buggers. We use it on our little mini farm all the time.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Well......why aren’t they using it?

[Eva]

They have been saying the same thing about spiders up here in the NW, that they carry drug resistant staphylococci. For years doctors have been misdiagnosing MRSA as a spider bite, a brown recluse spider bite. The problem with that is that we don't have brown recluse spiders. When that fact became known, they switched to claiming that other spider which are normally not a serious problem, must be carrying the MRSA bacteria. So, now it's the bed bugs.

[almost done by half]

"The hospital is the closest one to the poor Downtown Eastside neighborhood near the city's waterfront."

Time to burn the place down! ;-)

[Emperor Palpatine]

The sad thing is the City of Pittsburgh named a bridge after the hag responsible for banning DDT.

[1010RD]

Is it really an honor to have a bridge to Pittsburgh named after you?

[1010RD]

You might want to help clean up this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Effects_on_wildlife_and_eggshell_thinning

[Cringing Negativism Network]

It’s out there in Vancouver.

Good thing our borders are secure.

[HiTech RedNeck]

prolly need to be in the wikipedia “in” crowd a long time before disputing assertions that are part of the liberal pantheon like this. maybe egg shells did get thinner but if so it was because the DDT starved the birds for their food.

[HiTech RedNeck]

i think gays are the main vector of mrsa and similar nasties, and they tend to clump in liberal cities.

[yup2394871293]

We’ll all be murdered in our beds!!! ;)

[Emperor Palpatine]

Well, I guess if you're Roberto Clemente, (The real Great One - not that whiny-voiced New York lawyer), It would be a tremendous honor....After all, Pittsburgh has more bridges than any other city on Earth, (except perhaps for Venice, Italy.)