If the idea of bedbugs doesn’t already give you the heebie-jeebies, news blasts from the National Institutes of Health, Scientific American, Newsweek and other Internet sources are stirring a pot of frenzy with headlines such as “Bedbugs…Linked to Deadly Chagas Disease in US”! It’s all in the wake of research showing that the critters invading our bedrooms and even the nicest hotels can carry a dangerous parasite that causes a tropical illness called Chagas disease. Chagas disease can cause serious heart or respiratory problems decades after infection occurs, and it kills about 50,000 people every year. Sounds gruesome…but, that said, your true level of risk of Chagas disease from bedbugs doesn’t match the hype that even the government is hawking.
The health alerts that flooded the Internet were the spin of a lab study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. They found that bedbugs allowed to feed off mice infected with the tropical parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas disease, became infected themselves. When the infected bedbugs were then allowed to feed off healthy mice, those mice became infected, too. But while the study showed that infected animals could infect bedbugs and vice versa in a laboratory, it did not prove that infected mice—or bedbugs—are actually running around and spreading Chagas disease in the US.
Jerome Goddard, PhD, a professor of entomology at Mississippi State University, agreed. He explained that although the study about bedbugs and Chagas disease was scientifically sound and enlightening as scientific experiments go, no human cases of Chagas disease have yet been traced back to a bedbug infestation. News outlets are simply making a big stink about it to catch more eyeballs (and advertising dollars).
The real carriers of Chagas disease are the tropical pests called kissing bugs.
If you are now concerned about whether you should panic about kissing bugs, know that they particularly like to take up residence in poorly constructed homes made of mud, adobe clay and straw and are primarily native to South and Central America, Mexico and some southwestern parts of the United States. Most Americans live in homes made of lumber, brick, concrete and plaster, so Chagas disease infection may be more of a concern for “adventure” vacationers who like rugged travel in the tropics.
Until there is evidence that Chagas disease is actually being spread by bedbugs, ignore the hyped headlines. Dr. Goddard categorizes bedbugs as mostly harmless “nuisance pests”—but that doesn’t mean we have to endure them. Here is Dr. Goddard’s advice on protecting yourself from bedbugs.
