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Itchy bites and tossed - out mattresses may not be the only thing to vex about during a bedbug plague . investigator have find that the tiny leech can also harbor antibiotic - repellent bacteria .
" The finding from the study are by no substance conclusive , " said study researcher Marc Romney , of St. Paul ’s Hospital in Vancouver , British Columbia , in Canada . " They suggest that bedbugs , which were primarily just a nuisance before , may beable to transmit diseases . "
Adult bedbug at high magnification.
Romney and his colleagues studied five bedbugs from three patients at a Vancouver hospital . Bugs from two patients carried the antibiotic - resistant bacteriaEnterococcus faeium , referred to as VRE , because the last line of defence for treating this microbe was the antibiotic vancomycin , which the bacterium have now become immune to .
Three bed bug collected from the other patient test convinced for the superbug MRSA ( methicillin - resistantStaphylococcus aureus ) , which is also resistant to antibiotic drug .
The MRSA straining found on the bedbugs was USA300 , a virulent strain associated with cutis and mild tissue infection . It ’s beenfound almost everywhere , from cell phones to money and even along beaches . These hemipteran are usuallyassociated with hospitals , where they are beam through contact between health professional and patient , though the bacteria require to get into a person ’s skin to cause disease .
" MRSA infections unremarkably call for a respite in the pelt , and bedbugs do snack , so they could channelize infections theoretically , " Romney said . " These bedbug could carry the organism from one homo to another . "
The researchers do n’t know if the patients had already been exposed to the bacterium and transferred it to the bedbugs , or if the bed bug brought the bacteria with them before hitching a ride to the hospital on the patient . [ Bedbugs : The Life of a Mini - Monster ( Infographic ) ]
" As tight as bedbugs domiciliate in human domesticated spaces , it ’s not surprising that they would acquire human pathogen such as MRSA and VRE , " Richard Oehler , a investigator at the University of South Florida who was n’t affect in the study , said in an email to LiveScience . " This may potentially affect all ectoparasite ( let in fleas and ticks , etc ) , but there is not much in the lit . "
The affected role fare from an impoverished part of the city , where MRSA infection andbedbugs are flower . Both the bacteria and the bedbugs may lurk in these abject - hygienics location , which could have skewed the finding , Oehler say , though this is the first study to find that a bedbug can harbor antibiotic - insubordinate bacterium .
The bailiwick was publish today ( May 11 ) in the Center for Disease Control diary Emerging Infectious disease . The research worker note that since the results are establish on such a belittled sample of glitch , the findings will need to be reproduced in larger studies .
