“Night-Night, Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite”

My generation was raised on the specter of bed bugs if one dared to sleep in a ‘risky’ situation. There were threats of severe, life-threatening infections such as typhoid fever, based, no doubt, on tales from the trenches of World War I. Bedbug bites cause nasty skin reactions and sometimes more generalized symptoms. Since infestations are becoming more common worldwide, it was appropriate for researchers to review the available information on the actual risks of severe infections carried by the little monsters. A report is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers from Mississippi State University reviewed all medical and scientific publications on the subject from 1960 to 2008. They also searched documentation going back to 1892, albeit less comprehensively. They found 53 articles that met their criteria – reports of investigations of bed bugs, clinical responses, and convincing evidence of bed bug exposure. There were only two clinical trials of eradication methods.

More than 40 human diseases have been attributed to bed bug bites – some of them quite serious (plague, yellow fever, smallpox, HIV, hepatitis) - but there was no evidence of transmission by the insect in these publications. There were many reports of skin reactions associated with bed bug bites, and a few of generalized immune responses.

Bed bugs are difficult to eradicate, and no effective repellants have been identified. The authors conclude that the “avoidance affords the only proven protection”, so it looks as if my parents’ dire warnings were correct.