Jan 3, 2012 – Blood Exposure
QUESTION:
A question on blood borne pathogens and disease in engorged bed bugs. It has not been shown that bed bugs transmit disease through routine feeding, but what about when a pest control operator is exposed to the blood the bug has consumed, such as when or if engorged bugs are inadvertently "popped"? Also, is exposure to large quantities of bed bug fecal accumulations dangerous to the p.c.o.'s health?
ANSWER:
Interesting question Richard, and my answer will probably weigh heavily on my own speculation or thoughts, but we can start with the current standard opinion of our most respected researchers on bed bugs, and this is that The Common Bed Bug - Cimex lectularius - continues to NEVER be shown to be capable of vectoring any blood borne pathogens from one human to another. Now, this generally is with respect to a pathogen being ingested by a bed bug and then passed along to the next blood host in a second feeding in the same manner that fleas or mosquitoes vector diseases. There appears to be no mechanism within a bed bug for this to happen. Two years ago, when Swine Flu became a health threat and the media overwhelmed us with horror stories about it, the internet came alive with opinions, blogs, and chat rooms stating that bed bugs could spread swine flu. This simply was inaccurate and unfortunate. Gee, gotta love the internet.
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A question on blood borne pathogens and disease in engorged bed bugs. It has not been shown that bed bugs transmit disease through routine feeding, but what about when a pest control operator is exposed to the blood the bug has consumed, such as when or if engorged bugs are inadvertently "popped"? Also, is exposure to large quantities of bed bug fecal accumulations dangerous to the p.c.o.'s health?
ANSWER:
Interesting question Richard, and my answer will probably weigh heavily on my own speculation or thoughts, but we can start with the current standard opinion of our most respected researchers on bed bugs, and this is that The Common Bed Bug - Cimex lectularius - continues to NEVER be shown to be capable of vectoring any blood borne pathogens from one human to another. Now, this generally is with respect to a pathogen being ingested by a bed bug and then passed along to the next blood host in a second feeding in the same manner that fleas or mosquitoes vector diseases. There appears to be no mechanism within a bed bug for this to happen. Two years ago, when Swine Flu became a health threat and the media overwhelmed us with horror stories about it, the internet came alive with opinions, blogs, and chat rooms stating that bed bugs could spread swine flu. This simply was inaccurate and unfortunate. Gee, gotta love the internet.
But, what about fresh blood in a bed bug suddenly ending up on your skin? Let me tell a story from a vector control class I attended years ago, when the topic of mosquitoes and AIDS was addressed, since so many people firmly believe that mosquitoes could be vectors of AIDS. This too has been soundly refuted with a great many studies, but the instructors of this course suggested that (purely hypothetical, I might add) if any insect is capable of transmitting AIDS from one human to another perhaps it could be deer or horse flies. Again, I stress that this was purely hypothetical and these insects have never been shown to be vectors of this disease. But, what they were suggesting was that these flies are "messy" feeders, slashing the skin open with their scissors-like mandibles and allowing the blood to flow. If they began feeding on infected blood and were interrupted before getting a full meal perhaps.......purely "perhaps" ...... they could fly to a second human host, open the skin, and perhaps allow some of the fresh blood from the first host to enter the blood stream of that second host.
May I stress once again this was purely hypothetical. I don't want anyone saying Mr. Pest Control says horse flies spread AIDS. But, in order for this even to work it would require that the infected blood somehow find its way into the second host via an opening in the skin and into the blood vessels. Simply popping an engorged bed bug or any other insect and getting that blood on unbroken skin to be washed off immediately should pose no potential for transmission. Pathogens in the blood would not be capable of burrowing through the barrier our skin provides. So, as long as you do not eat the bed bugs or have open sores available for that blood to get into I don't believe this is an issue for pest control technicians.
With respect to exposure to the fecal material, which of course is just dried blood, this also has not been discussed at any of the many bed bug seminars I have attended. I do believe that the fecal matter of any living organism should be considered "filth", and filth has a potential to have undesirable things growing on it, so I personally would protect myself from exposure to it and recommend that the feces be removed and the surface sanitized. Just as with rodent and bird droppings, it is less the dropping itself and more the pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and fungi that grown on this material that we do not want to inhale or ingest. Blood probably provides a great growth medium for pathogenic micro-organisms. Therefore it would be good policy to wear an appropriate respiratory device and gloves when working around these materials. It's also possible that the greater concern could be an allergic reaction due to foreign proteins in the fecal material, and our immune systems generally are not fond of foreign proteins that get into our bodies.
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