Bedbugs with staph superbug germ found

May 12, 2011

Alarming combo: Bedbugs with 'superbug' germ found

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer Wed May 11, 4:57 pm ET

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.

'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.

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