Bedbugs: Not just a poor
man's bane |
One morning I awoke and saw red.
It was crawling across my sheets. The lumbering red
speck was a bed bug, satiated with my blood, and it
was not alone: I had an infestation on my hands. My
life quickly spiralled into a sleepless psychosis of
scalding and freezing pretty much everything I own,
and throwing out some of my most cherished possessions.
My experience is not unique.
A
PEST FOR ALL CLASSES
The vampiric Cimex lectularius has been keeping exterminators
increasingly busy in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal
and Toronto. Reports of infestations in urban abodes
across the country — from ritzy condominiums to
homeless shelters — have continued to rise dramatically
over the last 5 years.
Dr Stephen Hwang, of St. Michael's
Hospital's Centre for Research on Inner City Health,
attributes the rising number of bed bug cases to increased
international travel and a widespread turn away from
the use of persistent pesticides, such as DDT. "Bed
bugs are here to stay and they are only going to get
worse," says Dr Hwang, senior author of a study on bed
bug infestations in Toronto recently published in Emerging
Infectious Diseases.
Lots of people think bed bugs are
a poor man's plague, but Dr Hwang's study reveals they
affect all levels of society. In fact, 70% of the cases
pest-control operators in Toronto are called to are
in single-family dwellings.
The wingless, brownish-red body
of a bed bug is flat in appearance prior to feeding
but becomes bright red and bloated when engorged with
a blood meal. It pierces the victim's skin and injects
an anticoagulant to keep the blood flowing.
The pests have never been shown
to transmit disease to humans, so public health institutions
consider bed bugs a quality of life issue rather than
a threat to public health. But "anyone who has experienced
them will tell you that they are a health issue," says
Dr Hwang empathetically. Bed bugs cause physical discomfort
as well as a tremendous amount of anxiety, emotional
distress and insomnia because they are persistent and
reproduce rapidly.
KNOW
YOUR BITES
Early detection is key to fighting an infestation, which
can ultimately be a very expensive and exhausting ordeal.
"Doctors and nurses are going to
be seeing bed bug bites," Dr Hwang says. "They can save
these patients a great deal of suffering."
Bed bug bites are difficult to
diagnose: they are nondescript and each victim reacts
differently. The bites often produce welts and swelling
on the arms and shoulders, but they can also be found
on any bare skin that's exposed during the night. One
diagnostic clue is the unique biting pattern of a linear
group of three, sometimes referred to as a "breakfast,
lunch, dinner" pattern.
Although the St. Michael's study
illustrates the extent of the problem, it doesn't offer
any comforting conclusions. "The experience turns the
victim's life upside down," says Dr Hwang.
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