When patients get the travel bug, dermatologists should beware

August 9, 2017|Dermatology News

AT THE 2017 AAD SUMMER MEETING

Bedbugs

No discussion of infections among travelers would be complete without a discussion of bedbugs, whose numbers have rebounded since the 1950s, when DDT nearly wiped them out, said Theodore Rosen, MD, professor of dermatology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

The international banning of DDT coupled with an increase in international travel and a major effort to get rid of cockroaches, the bedbugs’ natural predator, has explained much of the resurgence. Now, Greenland is the only place on earth where one can be sure of not getting bitten by bedbugs, he said.

Mother Nature offers little help, since bedbugs can survive winters. And they are not always easy to notice, since their saliva contains an anesthetic, which can mask the feeling of a bite. “Insects can thus feed undetected for 5-10 minutes,” Dr. Rosen said. But, though experiments have shown them to be competent vectors at spreading disease, “in real life, they have not been demonstrated to be the purveyors of human disease,” he noted.

So far, the best way to get rid of them is “thermal remediation,” which entails heating infested areas to 120-140° F for 5-8 hours.

Also effective, but less practical, would be to set any infested structures ablaze.

Advice for the traveler: Keep your suitcases zipped in hotel rooms, and store them up high or in the shower, since bedbugs have a tough time jumping or gaining traction on porcelain. And make sure you launder your clothes once you get home.

Dr. Rosen, Dr. Martinez, and Dr. Oza had no disclosures.