Bed bugs are increasingly becoming a problem in most American homes, including hotels, apartments, dormitories, camper cabins, and other types of lodgings. They have been almost eradicated years ago, but increased foreign and local travel, changes in construction and design practices, and a general lack of public knowledge about how to control bed bug infestation has caused a rapid increase in their number.
Dangerous or Not
Generally speaking, a bed bug infestation is nowhere near as dangerous as, say an HIV epidemic. But being the blood-sucking parasites that they are, these nighttime insects rely on feeding on people’s blood for them to survive. In fact, it’s all they need to live. An adult bed bug can last up to an entire year without eating anything but human blood. Research has shown that bed bugs carry at least 27 disease agents, including viruses, bacteria, parasitic worms, and protozoa. Fortunately, they are known to lack the ability to transmit diseases to humans.
Implications of an Infestation
A bed bug bite is a teeny, tiny bite. Not a lot of people can wake up at one bed bug bite. But the bed bug’s saliva, which contains proteins that can cause allergies, is injected into the person’s skin. Of course, different persons have different reactions to bed bug bites. They can range from no reaction at all to asthma attacks and anemia.
1. Physical Effects
A person may exhibit no sign of being bitten by a bed bug, or he may have small red and itchy spots, swelling, or inflammation around the area that was bitten. Sometimes, wheals or boils may form because of substances in the bed bug’s saliva that prevent the formation of blood clots. The symptoms may appear only after days of being bitten and they usually take place on the arms and legs, since these are the most exposed parts of the body while sleeping.
2. Psychological Effects
Some people cannot deal with the social stigma of a bed bug infestation, causing them to suffer stress that can lead to psychological problems such as anxiety, insomnia, and delusional parasitosis, or Ekbom syndrome, which causes the victim to believe that he is being infested by parasites again even there are no parasites at all.
3. Other Effects
Severe cases of bed bug infestation have led to more severe problems. Although these rarely happen to a lot of people, the possibility is always there. For instance, chronic biting can cause anemia in a person, since one bite takes about 1ml of blood from the victim. Rigorous scratching can also cause the skin cells to break down and become susceptible to bacterial infection. Some people who have asthma may also suffer from asthma attacks when exposed to the allergens contained in a bed bug’s saliva.