William Atkins
Wednesday, 01 April 2009 19:29
Science -
Biology
Page 1 of 3
According to research into the possibility that bed bugs transmit diseases to humans, Mississippi state researchers didn’t find it to be so, based on past scientific studies and research.
Entomologists
Jerome Goddard and
Richard deShazo, both of the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson), wrote their conclusions in the article “
Bed Bugs (Cimex lectularius) and Clinical Consequences of Their Bites” in the
Journal of the American Medical Associatoin (JAMA) (2009;301(13):1358-1366.)
Their study was prompted by the growing concern of the health community with the increasing numbers of the common bed bug (scientifically known as the species
Cimex lectularius) found around the world.
Because of this health concern, bed beds could act as agents for the spread of disease throughout humans. "Could” is the key word because scientists do not know for sure if they do or do not spread diseases to humans.
The bed bug, or bedbug, is a small insect within the family Cimicidae that lives by feeding on the blood of warm-blooded creatures, including humans.
Therefore, as they state in the abstract to their paper, the objective of their study is to:
“… present current knowledge of the health and medical effects of bed bugs and to explore key issues in pest control and eradication efforts.”
The two U.S. researchers searched for relevant data within the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (
MEDLINE) database and Elsevier’s Excerpta Medica Database (
EMBASE), which includes information from 1960 to October 2008.
Page two continues with specifics on their study.
