Alarming combo: Bedbugs with 'superbug' germ found

Published - May 11 2011 03:57PM EST

By MIKE STOBBE - AP Medical Writer


(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
File In this Wednesday, March 30, 2011 file photo, A bed bug is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Canadian scientists detected drug-resistant MRSA bacteria in bedbugs from three hospital patients from a downtrodden Vancouver neighborhood.

ATLANTA — 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.

Five bedbugs were crushed and analyzed. MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was found on three bugs. MRSA is resistant to several types of common antibiotics and can become deadly if it gets through the skin and into the bloodstream.

Two bugs had VRE, or vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, a less dangerous form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Both germs are often seen in hospitals, and experts have been far more worried about nurses and other health care workers spreading the bacteria than insects.

It's not clear if the bacteria originated with the bedbugs or if the bugs picked it up from already infected people, Romney added.

The study was released Wednesday by Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/...germ_found

Time to bring back DDT.

Can you imagine the number of people who would be alive and healthy today had DDT not been banned?

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/17/6/pdfs/10-1978.pdf

Not sure what qualifies MRSA or VRE as a "superbug".

Quote:MRSA is resistant to several types of common antibiotics and can become deadly if it gets through the skin and into the bloodstream.

Since there are some folks who have died in local hospitals from MRSA, I would say it is kinda super.

My father's death certificate says his cause of death was MRSA. He did not have it when he entered the hospital and there were very few trips to the hospital that he did not contract a staph infection.

He was not the healthiest of people but he always got sicker when he entered the hospital.

Bring back anything that can control the growth and spread of these germs!!!

And make sure every person that touches you in any way washes their hands in front of you.

Unfortunate that it takes this.

My father's death certificate says his cause of death was MRSA. He did not have it when he entered the hospital and there were very few trips to the hospital that he did not contract a staph infection.

He was not the healthiest of people but he always got sicker when he entered the hospital.

Bring back anything that can control the growth and spread of these germs!!!

And make sure every person that touches you in any way in the hospital washes their hands in front of you.

Unfortunate that it takes this.

MRSA almost ended my brother's life 4 years ago. And he picked it up after going to an ER to deal with an injury. Nasty, nasty stuff. The cocktail they have to pump into your system to cauterize it is nuts.

I guess my point is that it's not exactly weapons grade anthrax or ebola, but everyone is correct that it can be a huge problem when precautions aren't taken. If, and that's a big if, people follow clean and sterile technique, infections can often be avoided. Many healthy people, especially hospital workers, are colonized by MRSA, often in their upper respiratory tracts and don't even know it.
The title of that article made it sound like everyone is gonna get a virulent MRSA infection from a bedbug, which is probably a lot less likely that picking it up from a doc who hasn't washed his or her hands between patients.

The sad thing about MRSA is that more people seem to contract it in medical facilities than other sources.

(05-13-2011 05:03 PM)ctipton Wrote:  The sad thing about MRSA is that more people seem to contract it in medical facilities than other sources.

Exactly. The only other place that immediately comes to mind as a big problem for MRSA infections is locker rooms, but yeah medical facilities are far and away the biggest offender. Nosocomial (hospital acquired) infections cause lots of human misery and cost untold amounts of money every year.

(05-13-2011 04:55 PM)JackieTreehorn Wrote:  I guess my point is that it's not exactly weapons grade anthrax or ebola, but everyone is correct that it can be a huge problem when precautions aren't taken. If, and that's a big if, people follow clean and sterile technique, infections can often be avoided. Many healthy people, especially hospital workers, are colonized by MRSA, often in their upper respiratory tracts and don't even know it.
The title of that article made it sound like everyone is gonna get a virulent MRSA infection from a bedbug, which is probably a lot less likely that picking it up from a doc who hasn't washed his or her hands between patients.

JT youre right about the article being a little misleading because authors of study clearly indicate that the presence of MRSA in bedbugs studied does not necessarily mean they can spread it. More research is obviously needed. However, the reason that the media calls MRSA a "superbug" is because the definition of a superbug is a bacterium resistant to multiple antibiotics due to presence of resistance genes. Obviously as you noted proper sterile techniques vastly reduces chances of getting disease and ebola virus is a far worse disease but in this case media is using correct term because superbug does not measure how virulent a bacterium is just fact that it is has multiple resistance.

(05-13-2011 06:44 PM)chicago bearcat Wrote:  

(05-13-2011 04:55 PM)JackieTreehorn Wrote:  I guess my point is that it's not exactly weapons grade anthrax or ebola, but everyone is correct that it can be a huge problem when precautions aren't taken. If, and that's a big if, people follow clean and sterile technique, infections can often be avoided. Many healthy people, especially hospital workers, are colonized by MRSA, often in their upper respiratory tracts and don't even know it.
The title of that article made it sound like everyone is gonna get a virulent MRSA infection from a bedbug, which is probably a lot less likely that picking it up from a doc who hasn't washed his or her hands between patients.

JT youre right about the article being a little misleading because authors of study clearly indicate that the presence of MRSA in bedbugs studied does not necessarily mean they can spread it. More research is obviously needed. However, the reason that the media calls MRSA a "superbug" is because the definition of a superbug is a bacterium resistant to multiple antibiotics due to presence of resistance genes. Obviously as you noted proper sterile techniques vastly reduces chances of getting disease and ebola virus is a far worse disease but in this case media is using correct term because superbug does not measure how virulent a bacterium is just fact that it is has multiple resistance.

You're absolutely correct about the definition of "superbug". I've just never been too crazy about it because I think it's kind of a misnomer. When I hear the term "super" applied in this context I can't help but wonder if many people think of it in terms of virulence rather than a bacterium which isn't necessarily more virulent, but is simply harder to treat when it causes an infection because it's developed multiple resistances due to the often indiscriminate overprescription of antibiotics. I know more than a few people with inordinate fears about bedbugs already to the point where they won't go to the movies or travel for fear of staying in hotels. I doubt headlines like this one does them much good.