Home-Care Workers & Bed Bugs

Bed bugs, blood-sucking insects that live and breed in beds and furniture, have made a comeback in the cities of the United States and Europe, despite being virtually eradicated in the 1950s. For home-care workers visiting numerous houses and apartments every day, bed bugs have become a professional hazard.

Identification

• Bed bugs are small, brown insects about the size of an apple seed. Signs of infestation include blood spots, bed bug skins, eggs and black fecal matter on mattresses and nearby furniture. Around 50 percent of people react to bed bug bites with large, red, itchy spots and welts.

Spread

• The number of bed bug infestations has increased since the 1990s, because of resistance to pesticides, environmental changes and the increasing popularity of global travel. The bugs spread by hitching a ride on clothes or luggage and in second-hand furniture. Bed bugs can infest hotels, hostels, hospitals, schools, shops and private homes. Getting rid of infestations is difficult and usually requires treatment from a professional pest control company.

Risk

• Home-care workers frequently risk contact with bed bugs when visiting infested houses and apartments. Some report visiting houses so badly infested that bed bugs have dropped onto them from ceilings. Others say they have been bitten during patient visits.

Protection

• Health authorities in parts of the United States now equip home-care workers and community nurses with protective clothing and equipment. Over two years, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spent more than $10,600 on protective boots and gowns for home-care workers.

Information

• In North Philadelphia, home-care workers learned how to recognize and prevent bed bug infestations at a conference led by the Pennsylvania School and Community Integrated Pest Management Partnership. The group encourages home-care workers to reassure residents with infestations and advise them on how to get help.