Reports of the bloodsuckers are up – and so is the paranoia
By Dakshana Bascaramurty – The Globe and Mail – September 20, 2010
When Ottawan Lisa Vod traveled to Toronto, this past weekend, she brought the grubbiest contents of her wardrobe to the hotel: a ripped hoodie, an old sweatshirt and worn-out sweatpants. Before she left Ms. Vod, a 34-year-old factory worker, knew she’d trash those clothes before she went home. She kept her nice outfits in the car to change into right before she went out on the town.
They may seem like extreme measures, but Ms. Vod has been bitten by the bed-bug hysteria infesting major Canadian cities in recent months. Last year, Toronto Public Health received 1,500 reports of bed bugs. As of the end of August, they’d already racked up 1,334 reports for 2010, including 258 that month alone.
Rising even faster than the reports is bloodsucker paranoia. Victims trade stories about the lasting psychological effects on online bed bug forums, those in charitable organizations business have become leery of donations, and people who have infestations keep mum among friends and colleagues out of fear they’ll be stigmatized.
Exterminators and entomologists have floated various theories of why bed bugs – whose numbers had declined in the past few decades only to tick upward recently - are back.
Susan Sperling, a spokeswoman for Toronto Public Health, says their increase could be due to the fact that people are traveling more and taking the critters with them in their suitcases from one city to another. Another reason could be the ban of broad-spectrum residual pesticides – which were found to have other serious negative health effects. A built-up resistance to chemicals could also be to blame, she says.
Ms. Vod researched hotels on Trip Advisor before finding one she hoped was bed bug free. “I will inspect the room … to make sure,” Ms. Vod wrote in an email before she left for Toronto. “Now because it seams to be all over the news, I’m overstressed.”
Adam Radomsky, an associate psychology professor at Montreal’s Concordia University who is completing a three year body of work on contamination fears, likens bed-bug disgust and discomfort to what happened with SARS and H1N1.
“Things were very narrow in the beginning for those problems. The anxiety, the fear, the panic spread much further and I think it’s the same phenomenon happening here.” Fear can take shape even when there isn’t clear evidence of contamination, he says. “We can feel contaminated thinking about something, remembering something.”
Another problem with bed bugs, says Andrew Keddie, an insect pathologist at the University of Alberta, is that “as a rule, you don’t find them.”
Their shape – they’re small, dark and have flattened bodies – make them hard to detect, he says. In many cases the bites are the only evidence of bed bug presence. They’re often flat and itchy and appear in arcs of three on the skin, which are nauseatingly described as “breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
After a sleepless night in her Toronto condo in April, Jessica showed up to work groggy and on edge. When her co-workers asked if she was ok, she broke down into tears and confessed she might have bed bugs.
“They said, ‘We’re going to support you, but we’re not going to touch you or go near you,’ “ she recalls.
For Jessica, 26, who did not want her last name used for fear of seeing her property value decline, the pests not only consumed her blood (as evidenced by the bite marks all over her body), but also her thoughts. Could she hug her colleagues? Could she have guests over? Was it ok for her to sleep at a friend’s place?
While she dealt with her share of cockroach, mice and ant infestations in previous Toronto apartments, the bed bugs affected her the most, she says.
For weeks, even after two visits by an exterminator who sprayed her apartment, she’d come home from work and search every nook and cranny in the house for bed bug carcasses.
“I just wanted to find evidence, to find proof they were there,” she says.
On websites such as Bedbugger.com, users – cloaked in anonymity – share tales of how their own bed bug problems affected their sleep and their ability to concentrate at work. Many confess to feeling shame about their infestations and being labeled as unhygienic despite the fact that even luxury condos and five-star hotels have been sites of infestations.
In Michelle Heath’s Winnipeg apartment, there’s a light sprinkling of white power around all the baseboards. “I look like a cocaine addict,” the 24-year-old office manager says with a laugh. “I just need to know there’s something there.” A year ago, at her previous residence, Ms. Heath discovered bed bugs just a few weeks after she moved in. Her apartment was sprayed, but it didn’t solve the problem, so she found a new place to live.
During the ordeal, she only told her bosses about the problem - and that was just because she needed time off to deal with it. She feared others at the office would treat her differently if they knew. “I felt like a total freak because I had bed bugs,” she says. “Do I go to work, do I not go to work?”
While she gets more shut-eye now than she did a year ago – when it was only three or four hours a night – she says thoughts about the bloodsuckers keep her up and have caused her to over think everything.
“[Bed bugs] poo on your bedding and it’s like little black spots. So any time I see a little black spot , nine times out of 10 it’s lint or something, but I have to look at it right away and figure out what it is,” she says.
In Toronto, the fact that bed bugs are on the rise has alarmed some non-profit organizations and second hand merchants, as well. Red Door Family Shelter, a Toronto charity, stopped accepting donations of upholstered furniture and mattresses this spring because of the city’s bed-bug problem. “We were receiving complaints from our ex-residents who had received [furniture],” Bernnitta Hawkins, the organization’s executive director, says. The cost of testing furniture for bed bugs is so high that it just made more sense to turn down all couches, armchairs and mattresses, putting the onus on residents to use what money they have to make such purchases themselves.
Ms. Heath trashed her brand new $1,000 mattress and all other furniture when she moved to a new apartment, but she still sometimes worries bed bugs may be lurking in various corners of her apartment: hiding in shoes, burrowing under her box spring, scurrying up her bedroom walls at night. “Even if there hasn’t been one, you’re totally psychologically like, ‘I can feel it! I can feel it!’”
Monday, October 18, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
New drug – resistant superbugs spreading
Hamilton Spectator September 14, 2010 P.A7
BOSTON - An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: A new gene that can turn many types of bacteria into superbugs resistant to nearly all antibiotics has sickened people in three states, has popped up in Canada and worldwide, health officials reported yesterday.
The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is wide spread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain in people who had gone to India for medical procedures. How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown.
Scientists have long feared this – a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance. “It’s a great concern,” because drug resistance has been rising and few new antibiotics are in development, said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “It’s just a matter of time” until the gene spreads more widely person-to-person.
Grayson heads an American Society for Microbiology conference in Boston, which was buzzing with reports of the gene, called NDM-1 and named for New Delhi.
The U.S. cases occurred in 2010 in people from California, Massachusetts and Illinois. Three types of bacteria were involved, and three different mechanisms let the gene become part of them.
What can people do? Don’t add to the drug resistance problem, experts say. Don’t pressure your doctors for antibiotics if they say they aren’t needed, use the ones you are given properly, and try to avoid infections by washing your hands.
The Associated Press
BOSTON - An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: A new gene that can turn many types of bacteria into superbugs resistant to nearly all antibiotics has sickened people in three states, has popped up in Canada and worldwide, health officials reported yesterday.
The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is wide spread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain in people who had gone to India for medical procedures. How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown.
Scientists have long feared this – a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance. “It’s a great concern,” because drug resistance has been rising and few new antibiotics are in development, said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “It’s just a matter of time” until the gene spreads more widely person-to-person.
Grayson heads an American Society for Microbiology conference in Boston, which was buzzing with reports of the gene, called NDM-1 and named for New Delhi.
The U.S. cases occurred in 2010 in people from California, Massachusetts and Illinois. Three types of bacteria were involved, and three different mechanisms let the gene become part of them.
What can people do? Don’t add to the drug resistance problem, experts say. Don’t pressure your doctors for antibiotics if they say they aren’t needed, use the ones you are given properly, and try to avoid infections by washing your hands.
The Associated Press
Monday, October 4, 2010
Bedbugs take bites out of peoples' mental health
By JENNY YUEN, Toronto Sun. Friday, October 1, 2010
The stigma of having bedbugs might be too much for some to bear.
In a packed conference room inside Queen’s Park during the city’s first bedbug summit Wednesday, registered nurse Betty Graham recalls the mental meltdown she encountered speaking to residents in a St. Clair Ave. apartment who were dealing with the blood-sucking pests. Many of them contemplated suicide.
“One lady said to me, 'I was so afraid of living like a hermit, I thought about jumping off my balcony,’ and another lady said, 'If only they could exterminate me',” Graham recalled.
“We need to do something, because bedbug bites may not pose something to someone’s physical health, but the threat to people’s mental health is potentially disastrous.”
The bedbug summit – which attracted experts from the pest control industry, municipal public health units, landlords and politicians – was spearheaded by Liberal MPP Mike Colle. He is calling for a national plan to help shoot down the tiny bloodsuckers.
“We know nothing about how widespread this is because there’s no scientific research or quantification that’s been done,” Colle said at the conference.
“We need to find out why they’re coming here and how do we prevent this.”
Colle said he will present information gathered at the summit to provincial health and government officials in hopes it will lead to an education program and standards for pesticides to kill the bugs.
“We’ll say, 'Here’s what the evidence is, what can we do to help?’ ” he said.
“It’s a way of reinforcing the case people are making.”
The number of bedbug cases in Toronto has skyrocketed from about 190 cases in 2005 to almost 10 times that number, according to Toronto Public Health.
Some speakers at the meeting said prevention and education are key to defeating the rising bed bug infestation in Ontario and called for more provincial money to deal with the problem.
The stigma of having bedbugs might be too much for some to bear.
In a packed conference room inside Queen’s Park during the city’s first bedbug summit Wednesday, registered nurse Betty Graham recalls the mental meltdown she encountered speaking to residents in a St. Clair Ave. apartment who were dealing with the blood-sucking pests. Many of them contemplated suicide.
“One lady said to me, 'I was so afraid of living like a hermit, I thought about jumping off my balcony,’ and another lady said, 'If only they could exterminate me',” Graham recalled.
“We need to do something, because bedbug bites may not pose something to someone’s physical health, but the threat to people’s mental health is potentially disastrous.”
The bedbug summit – which attracted experts from the pest control industry, municipal public health units, landlords and politicians – was spearheaded by Liberal MPP Mike Colle. He is calling for a national plan to help shoot down the tiny bloodsuckers.
“We know nothing about how widespread this is because there’s no scientific research or quantification that’s been done,” Colle said at the conference.
“We need to find out why they’re coming here and how do we prevent this.”
Colle said he will present information gathered at the summit to provincial health and government officials in hopes it will lead to an education program and standards for pesticides to kill the bugs.
“We’ll say, 'Here’s what the evidence is, what can we do to help?’ ” he said.
“It’s a way of reinforcing the case people are making.”
The number of bedbug cases in Toronto has skyrocketed from about 190 cases in 2005 to almost 10 times that number, according to Toronto Public Health.
Some speakers at the meeting said prevention and education are key to defeating the rising bed bug infestation in Ontario and called for more provincial money to deal with the problem.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Study: Green Buildings Improve Employee Health
Cleanlink News September 9, 2010
A recent study found that employees who move from buildings with poor indoor environmental quality to more healthful "green" buildings may reap some benefits, including less absenteeism and higher productivity.
According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, the green building movement isn't just concerned with constructing buildings that are more energy efficient and environmentally responsible — they're supposed to improve indoor surroundings as well, making it more healthful and pleasant for those who work there, via lighting, ventilation, acoustics and ergonomic design.
Researchers from Michigan State University did two case studies evaluating the physical and mental health status of people who moved from traditional to green office buildings. One scenario involved 56 people and the other 207, and employees were asked through surveys about absenteeism from work in both types of buildings for asthma, allergies, depression and stress-related conditions. They were also asked about productivity in the two settings.
Both green buildings received high ratings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building certification organization.
Being absent from work for asthma, allergies, depression and stress decreased following the move into the green buildings; for example, hours absent from work due to asthma and allergies was on average 1.12 per month in conventional buildings and 0.49 in green buildings. The average number of work hours affected by illness per month also declined after the move. Productivity improved.
Using the numbers, researchers estimated that better health and higher productivity could translate into more work hours per year.
Researchers plan to do additional research at other sites as well as follow these employees to assess changes in health and productivity and to make sure that the results aren't due to the Hawthorne effect, a phenomenon in which people change the behavior that's being evaluated because they know they're being studied.
A recent study found that employees who move from buildings with poor indoor environmental quality to more healthful "green" buildings may reap some benefits, including less absenteeism and higher productivity.
According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, the green building movement isn't just concerned with constructing buildings that are more energy efficient and environmentally responsible — they're supposed to improve indoor surroundings as well, making it more healthful and pleasant for those who work there, via lighting, ventilation, acoustics and ergonomic design.
Researchers from Michigan State University did two case studies evaluating the physical and mental health status of people who moved from traditional to green office buildings. One scenario involved 56 people and the other 207, and employees were asked through surveys about absenteeism from work in both types of buildings for asthma, allergies, depression and stress-related conditions. They were also asked about productivity in the two settings.
Both green buildings received high ratings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building certification organization.
Being absent from work for asthma, allergies, depression and stress decreased following the move into the green buildings; for example, hours absent from work due to asthma and allergies was on average 1.12 per month in conventional buildings and 0.49 in green buildings. The average number of work hours affected by illness per month also declined after the move. Productivity improved.
Using the numbers, researchers estimated that better health and higher productivity could translate into more work hours per year.
Researchers plan to do additional research at other sites as well as follow these employees to assess changes in health and productivity and to make sure that the results aren't due to the Hawthorne effect, a phenomenon in which people change the behavior that's being evaluated because they know they're being studied.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Bedbugs biting nationwide, but who's tracking?
Sat Sep 11,2010 - By Pat Hewitt, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - The creepy comeback of bedbugs in Canada has an Ontario politician calling for a national health strategy to track the tiny bloodsuckers.
They're crawling into homes, apartments, hospitals, hotels and student residences nationwide. They prefer human blood and their bites can leave itchy, red bumps. Reports from the pest control industry and hotel and housing organizations suggest infestations have risen dramatically in recent years, the Public Health Agency of Canada says. Still, the agency and more than a dozen municipal public health units and provincial health ministries contacted across the country say they don't track infestations. Bedbugs aren't a public health issue and don't have to be reported to health authorities, they say.
Ontario Liberal Michael Colle, who's organizing a bedbug summit on Sept. 29 at the Ontario legislature, disagrees. "It's almost debilitating. People tell me they can't sleep, it's very expensive and they don't know what to do, what works," said Colle.
While public health officials say there are no known cases of infectious disease transmitted by bedbugs, scratching the bitten areas can lead to infection. Eradicating the wingless, 6-mm long bugs can cost thousands of dollars. Within its one-year life span a female bedbug can lay 200 to 400 eggs — making them a real threat to homeowners and businesses alike.
"You can see what happens when there was this bedbug scare at the Toronto film festival," said Colle. A posting on Twitter about bedbugs at a theatre got entertainment websites buzzing, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Colle said it's tough to battle the bugs when nobody is tracking their march into the beds of sleeping Canadians.
"This is the problem. There's no data or hard scientific facts about the proliferation, the concentration," said Colle. "Hopefully the summit will get attention and resources paid for provincially, but also asking the federal government. They've got to be involved in getting a national health strategy to deal with this thing."
The U.S.-based website bedbugregistry.com logs complaints from users across North America, but there's no verification process provincially or Canada-wide, said Colle. Toronto is seeing a resurgence of bedbugs and has more than other jurisdictions, according to Toronto Public Health. It responded to more than 1,500 complaints or requests for service from the public in 2009. There were 1,076 complaints from January through July alone this year.
Ottawa's health unit has had 70 to 75 calls so far this year from people who've reported bedbugs at hotels or from tenants or landlords, compared to 60 in 2009 and 70 the year before. Montreal and other big cities in Quebec have seen a comeback in the past three to four years.
"What seems to be transpiring from the field is that there's more and more infestations," said Dr. Stephane Perron with Montreal Public Health. In 2007, 20 buildings of the 700 managed by Montreal's municipal housing corporation were infested with bedbugs. A year later, the number had jumped to 120 buildings. But bedbug infestations in private homes are dramatically under-reported because there's a stigma attached to having them. Most people, for example, didn't answer survey questions in Montreal about the issue, Perron said. Edmonton and Regina have seen more calls this year about bedbugs. Vancouver and Calgary officials say there have been some reports of bedbugs but nothing significant. Victoria has seen occasional problems with bedbugs in homeless shelters. Newfoundland had bedbugs in some rooms for rent.
Anyone can get bedbugs, Colle noted. "I always vividly recall a 90-year-old woman who essentially had gotten rid of her furniture, fumigated, bought new furniture then they came back again. She was at her wit's end," said Colle.
Thornhill, Ont.-based Purity Pest Control gets 50 to 60 calls a week for inspections with its sniffer dogs, a service that costs about $350, said owner Michael Goldman. Treatment for a four-bedroom house is about $1,500, which includes steaming and vacuuming. Even then, some bugs or their eggs may still lurk in walls, under baseboards or in mattresses, said Goldman. Some companies use thermal heating. Swedish researchers think they might have an answer. A recent study from that country found that immature bedbugs — known as nymphs — secrete an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone that deter male bedbugs from mating. Researchers suggest using that pheromone in an insecticide could stop bedbugs from reproducing. Many broad-spectrum, long-lasting pesticides that kill bedbugs have been banned and ones that remain are less effective, Goldman said.
Mattress encasement covers cost about $75 and do work, Goldman said, if you can get over the squeamishness of knowing what lies beneath you when you sleep. Curbside shoppers and garage sale groupies should beware. "I just came from an inspection... that the people bought a used couch and unbeknownst to them there were bedbugs in it," said Goldman. He suggests ripping holes in infested couches or mattresses left at the curb so no one drags them — and the creepy crawlers inside — home.
TORONTO - The creepy comeback of bedbugs in Canada has an Ontario politician calling for a national health strategy to track the tiny bloodsuckers.
They're crawling into homes, apartments, hospitals, hotels and student residences nationwide. They prefer human blood and their bites can leave itchy, red bumps. Reports from the pest control industry and hotel and housing organizations suggest infestations have risen dramatically in recent years, the Public Health Agency of Canada says. Still, the agency and more than a dozen municipal public health units and provincial health ministries contacted across the country say they don't track infestations. Bedbugs aren't a public health issue and don't have to be reported to health authorities, they say.
Ontario Liberal Michael Colle, who's organizing a bedbug summit on Sept. 29 at the Ontario legislature, disagrees. "It's almost debilitating. People tell me they can't sleep, it's very expensive and they don't know what to do, what works," said Colle.
While public health officials say there are no known cases of infectious disease transmitted by bedbugs, scratching the bitten areas can lead to infection. Eradicating the wingless, 6-mm long bugs can cost thousands of dollars. Within its one-year life span a female bedbug can lay 200 to 400 eggs — making them a real threat to homeowners and businesses alike.
"You can see what happens when there was this bedbug scare at the Toronto film festival," said Colle. A posting on Twitter about bedbugs at a theatre got entertainment websites buzzing, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Colle said it's tough to battle the bugs when nobody is tracking their march into the beds of sleeping Canadians.
"This is the problem. There's no data or hard scientific facts about the proliferation, the concentration," said Colle. "Hopefully the summit will get attention and resources paid for provincially, but also asking the federal government. They've got to be involved in getting a national health strategy to deal with this thing."
The U.S.-based website bedbugregistry.com logs complaints from users across North America, but there's no verification process provincially or Canada-wide, said Colle. Toronto is seeing a resurgence of bedbugs and has more than other jurisdictions, according to Toronto Public Health. It responded to more than 1,500 complaints or requests for service from the public in 2009. There were 1,076 complaints from January through July alone this year.
Ottawa's health unit has had 70 to 75 calls so far this year from people who've reported bedbugs at hotels or from tenants or landlords, compared to 60 in 2009 and 70 the year before. Montreal and other big cities in Quebec have seen a comeback in the past three to four years.
"What seems to be transpiring from the field is that there's more and more infestations," said Dr. Stephane Perron with Montreal Public Health. In 2007, 20 buildings of the 700 managed by Montreal's municipal housing corporation were infested with bedbugs. A year later, the number had jumped to 120 buildings. But bedbug infestations in private homes are dramatically under-reported because there's a stigma attached to having them. Most people, for example, didn't answer survey questions in Montreal about the issue, Perron said. Edmonton and Regina have seen more calls this year about bedbugs. Vancouver and Calgary officials say there have been some reports of bedbugs but nothing significant. Victoria has seen occasional problems with bedbugs in homeless shelters. Newfoundland had bedbugs in some rooms for rent.
Anyone can get bedbugs, Colle noted. "I always vividly recall a 90-year-old woman who essentially had gotten rid of her furniture, fumigated, bought new furniture then they came back again. She was at her wit's end," said Colle.
Thornhill, Ont.-based Purity Pest Control gets 50 to 60 calls a week for inspections with its sniffer dogs, a service that costs about $350, said owner Michael Goldman. Treatment for a four-bedroom house is about $1,500, which includes steaming and vacuuming. Even then, some bugs or their eggs may still lurk in walls, under baseboards or in mattresses, said Goldman. Some companies use thermal heating. Swedish researchers think they might have an answer. A recent study from that country found that immature bedbugs — known as nymphs — secrete an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone that deter male bedbugs from mating. Researchers suggest using that pheromone in an insecticide could stop bedbugs from reproducing. Many broad-spectrum, long-lasting pesticides that kill bedbugs have been banned and ones that remain are less effective, Goldman said.
Mattress encasement covers cost about $75 and do work, Goldman said, if you can get over the squeamishness of knowing what lies beneath you when you sleep. Curbside shoppers and garage sale groupies should beware. "I just came from an inspection... that the people bought a used couch and unbeknownst to them there were bedbugs in it," said Goldman. He suggests ripping holes in infested couches or mattresses left at the curb so no one drags them — and the creepy crawlers inside — home.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Canada braces for spread of medical-tourism bug
Two cases of resistant superbug confirmed in patients who had traveled to India
By Jill Mahoney - The Globe and Mail, August 12, 2010
At least two Canadians have become infected with a dangerous new superbug from India that is spreading around the world, partly due to medical tourism.
The superbug, which is resistant to almost all antibiotics, has Canadian public-health experts bracing for out outbreaks. “There will be others. It’s just a matter of time,” said Dylan Pillai, a medical microbiologist at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. “It’s just the nature of the beast.”
Researchers reported dozens of cases of British, Indian and Pakistani patients who got infections caused by bacteria harbouring an enzyme called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Wednesday.
Of 29 Britons, more than half had recently traveled to India or Pakistan and 14 had been admitted to hospitals in the subcontinent, where the drug resistant enzyme originated, including for kidney transplants and cosmetic surgery.
Two cases have been confirmed among Canadians who spent time in India. In addition, the drug resistant infection has been found in patients from the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia.
The Lancet researchers called the superbug’s spread a “clear and frightening” potential “major global health problem,” nothing that drug companies are not producing new antibiotics for NDM-1 sufferers.
“At a global level, this is a real concern,” lead author Timothy Walsh, a professor of medical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance at Cardiff University in Wales, told Reuters.
“Because of medical tourism and international travel in general, resistance to these types of bacteria has the potential to spread around the world very, very quickly. And there is nothing in the [drug development] pipeline to tackle it.” With only a couple of effective antibiotics, NDM-1 is one of the most difficult superbugs to treat. There are many more medications available for other drug-resistant infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).
“It’s quite concerning because there are very limited treatment options,” Dr. Pillai said. “We’re really in a tight spot here.”
In a commentary accompanying The Lancet study, Johann Pitout, a University of Calgary professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, urged screening patients who undergo medical procedures in India before they receive treatment in their home countries.
“The consequences will be serious if family doctors have to treat infections caused by the multi-resistant bacteria on a daily bases,” he wrote.
In an interview, Dr. Pitout, a medical microbiologist, was unaware of the new superbug. He said he “put two and two together” after reading medical reports out of Britain, where NDM-1 was first detected in 2008. He plans to publish a paper on the case.
As well, a Vancouver woman contracted NDM-1 in India, where she was hospitalized and treated without success, said Howard Njoo, director general of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control. In February, the woman came to Vancouver, where doctors found an effective combination of antibiotics, he said.
“This case was, in a sense, not unusual because of the association and travel to India. It still underscores the fact that we haven’t had a case of this bug actually circulating in Canada,” he said.
Dr. Njoo said he was not aware of the details of the Alberta case.
NDM-1 is an enzyme that is produced by bacteria that renders most antibiotics inactive. It is commonly harboured in E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. People infected with NDM-1 producing bacteria often contract urinary tract infections, pneumonia or blood infections. “If you get it in the hospital, this could be certainly a tipping point, and if the doctors don’t have good antibiotics to resort to, it could be very, very dangerous,” Dr. Pillai said.
The spread of NDM-1 within health-care facilities can be curbed through strict infection-control measures, including patient isolation and hand washing.
By Jill Mahoney - The Globe and Mail, August 12, 2010
At least two Canadians have become infected with a dangerous new superbug from India that is spreading around the world, partly due to medical tourism.
The superbug, which is resistant to almost all antibiotics, has Canadian public-health experts bracing for out outbreaks. “There will be others. It’s just a matter of time,” said Dylan Pillai, a medical microbiologist at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. “It’s just the nature of the beast.”
Researchers reported dozens of cases of British, Indian and Pakistani patients who got infections caused by bacteria harbouring an enzyme called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Wednesday.
Of 29 Britons, more than half had recently traveled to India or Pakistan and 14 had been admitted to hospitals in the subcontinent, where the drug resistant enzyme originated, including for kidney transplants and cosmetic surgery.
Two cases have been confirmed among Canadians who spent time in India. In addition, the drug resistant infection has been found in patients from the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia.
The Lancet researchers called the superbug’s spread a “clear and frightening” potential “major global health problem,” nothing that drug companies are not producing new antibiotics for NDM-1 sufferers.
“At a global level, this is a real concern,” lead author Timothy Walsh, a professor of medical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance at Cardiff University in Wales, told Reuters.
“Because of medical tourism and international travel in general, resistance to these types of bacteria has the potential to spread around the world very, very quickly. And there is nothing in the [drug development] pipeline to tackle it.” With only a couple of effective antibiotics, NDM-1 is one of the most difficult superbugs to treat. There are many more medications available for other drug-resistant infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).
“It’s quite concerning because there are very limited treatment options,” Dr. Pillai said. “We’re really in a tight spot here.”
In a commentary accompanying The Lancet study, Johann Pitout, a University of Calgary professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, urged screening patients who undergo medical procedures in India before they receive treatment in their home countries.
“The consequences will be serious if family doctors have to treat infections caused by the multi-resistant bacteria on a daily bases,” he wrote.
In an interview, Dr. Pitout, a medical microbiologist, was unaware of the new superbug. He said he “put two and two together” after reading medical reports out of Britain, where NDM-1 was first detected in 2008. He plans to publish a paper on the case.
As well, a Vancouver woman contracted NDM-1 in India, where she was hospitalized and treated without success, said Howard Njoo, director general of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control. In February, the woman came to Vancouver, where doctors found an effective combination of antibiotics, he said.
“This case was, in a sense, not unusual because of the association and travel to India. It still underscores the fact that we haven’t had a case of this bug actually circulating in Canada,” he said.
Dr. Njoo said he was not aware of the details of the Alberta case.
NDM-1 is an enzyme that is produced by bacteria that renders most antibiotics inactive. It is commonly harboured in E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. People infected with NDM-1 producing bacteria often contract urinary tract infections, pneumonia or blood infections. “If you get it in the hospital, this could be certainly a tipping point, and if the doctors don’t have good antibiotics to resort to, it could be very, very dangerous,” Dr. Pillai said.
The spread of NDM-1 within health-care facilities can be curbed through strict infection-control measures, including patient isolation and hand washing.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Bedbug ‘pandemic’ predicted
By Marsha Lederman (Vancouver) and Adrian Morrow (Toronto)
The Globe and Mail, Friday July 30, 2010
Bedbugs are making a comeback around the world, prompting city officials and pest control companies to step up the fight against their spread.
An 81-per-cent increase in bedbugs call to the U.S. National Pest Management Association in the past 10 years prompted the group to conduct its first comprehensive global bedbug study. “The results … suggest that we are on the threshold of a bedbug pandemic, not just in the United States, but around the world,” said the NPMA’s Missy Henricksen.
This week, New York committed $500,000 to its infestation. The money will go to creating a website that will educate people on how to eradicate the bugs, employing inspectors for apartment buildings and training city staff in the latest eradication techniques. A city survey suggests one in 15 New Yorkers (About 400,000 people) have suffered an infestation in the past year, with the critters showing up everywhere from an Abercrombie & Fitch outlet to Bill Clinton’s office.
Canada is not immune – a study by Insight Pharmaceuticals ranked Toronto as the third-worst afflicted city in North America, and Vancouver eighth (Columbus, Ohio and New York took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots).
Previous studies have pinned the increase in infestations to the banning of DDT and the increase of international travel, but Sean Rollo, president of the Structural Pest Management Association of B.C., says the primary reason is a change in the way pest control operators (PCOs) deal with cockroaches. The cockroach treatments used pre-1990s also killed bedbugs, but since PCOs moved to a food-based bait for the roaches, the bedbugs, which only feast on blood, have thrived.
In Vancouver, an online bedbug registry clocks almost daily additions, but neither the city nor the public health department is tracking the spread. Vancouver Coastal Health says it’s not a health issue, as bedbugs have not been found to carry any infectious diseases.
Mr. Rollo attests that there has been a “dramatic increase” in Lower Mainland B.C. since the 1990s, adding they’ve been an issue in local hotels, hospitals, movie theatres, daycare centres, summer camps, libraries and airplanes. The problem is escalating in Vancouver, he says. “There’s no question about it … every time there’s an Olympics, there’s a boom of bed bugs,” noting a similar pattern emerged in Sydney and Bejing.
In Toronto, the tiny insects have been reported in schools, offices and public transit. In June, an Etobicoke hospital beat back a small outbreak and downtown hotels booked by G20 delegates hired dogs to scour their rooms for the bugs.
The Globe and Mail, Friday July 30, 2010
Bedbugs are making a comeback around the world, prompting city officials and pest control companies to step up the fight against their spread.
An 81-per-cent increase in bedbugs call to the U.S. National Pest Management Association in the past 10 years prompted the group to conduct its first comprehensive global bedbug study. “The results … suggest that we are on the threshold of a bedbug pandemic, not just in the United States, but around the world,” said the NPMA’s Missy Henricksen.
This week, New York committed $500,000 to its infestation. The money will go to creating a website that will educate people on how to eradicate the bugs, employing inspectors for apartment buildings and training city staff in the latest eradication techniques. A city survey suggests one in 15 New Yorkers (About 400,000 people) have suffered an infestation in the past year, with the critters showing up everywhere from an Abercrombie & Fitch outlet to Bill Clinton’s office.
Canada is not immune – a study by Insight Pharmaceuticals ranked Toronto as the third-worst afflicted city in North America, and Vancouver eighth (Columbus, Ohio and New York took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots).
Previous studies have pinned the increase in infestations to the banning of DDT and the increase of international travel, but Sean Rollo, president of the Structural Pest Management Association of B.C., says the primary reason is a change in the way pest control operators (PCOs) deal with cockroaches. The cockroach treatments used pre-1990s also killed bedbugs, but since PCOs moved to a food-based bait for the roaches, the bedbugs, which only feast on blood, have thrived.
In Vancouver, an online bedbug registry clocks almost daily additions, but neither the city nor the public health department is tracking the spread. Vancouver Coastal Health says it’s not a health issue, as bedbugs have not been found to carry any infectious diseases.
Mr. Rollo attests that there has been a “dramatic increase” in Lower Mainland B.C. since the 1990s, adding they’ve been an issue in local hotels, hospitals, movie theatres, daycare centres, summer camps, libraries and airplanes. The problem is escalating in Vancouver, he says. “There’s no question about it … every time there’s an Olympics, there’s a boom of bed bugs,” noting a similar pattern emerged in Sydney and Bejing.
In Toronto, the tiny insects have been reported in schools, offices and public transit. In June, an Etobicoke hospital beat back a small outbreak and downtown hotels booked by G20 delegates hired dogs to scour their rooms for the bugs.
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