Bedbugs + MRSA = Uh Oh…
Yup, you read that right. At first, we thought bed bugs were nothing more than annoying, blood sucking vampires that caused us no real harm. Now, studies are saying otherwise. According to researchers in Vancouver, they've found bedbugs with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
According to an article in Time Magazine, the scientists studied five bedbugs, taken from three patients treated at St. Paul's Hospital in Canada. All three patients were residents of Vancouver's poor Downtown Eastside, where both bedbugs and MRSA have been on the rise in recent years. The researchers wanted to see if there was a connection.
So, they crushed and analyzed the bugs and found three samples with MRSA, the superbug that is resistant to most commonly used antibiotics. The two other samples had vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, or VRE, a less dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Based on the research, there are still a few things that aren't really clear. Such as, does the MRSA bacteria live IN the bed bug, or merely survive ON it. Either way, there's a lot more to learn about bed bugs and potential disease transmission, but the fact that there have been cases reported leaves a lot of unease.
What do you think? Is this just a lot of coincidental hog wash, or is this a true and very serious issue on our hands...or better yet, our beds?
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