MedicineNet: Bed Bugs

What about bedbugs in hotels?

Many news reports in recent years have focused on the discovery of bedbugs in even upscale hotels, and a number of lawsuits have been filed by guests in these fashionable hotels who awoke to find hundreds of bedbug bites covering their skin. Searching on travel-review web sites regularly reveals information and even photos confirming the presence of bedbugs in numerous hotels.

Since bedbugs can arrive on the clothing or in the suitcases of guests from infested homes or other hotels harboring the pests, hotels can be an easy target for bedbug infestations.

In addition to hotels, bedbugs have been found in movie theaters, office buildings, laundries, shelters, in transportation vehicles, and other locations where people may congregate.

Bedbugs live in any articles of furniture, clothing, or bedding, so they or their eggs may be present in used furniture or clothing. They spread by crawling and may contaminate multiple rooms in a home or even multiple dwellings in apartment buildings. They may also be present in boxes, suitcases, or other goods that are moved from residence to residence or from a hotel to home. Bedbugs can live on clothing from infested homes and may be spread by a person unknowingly wearing infested clothing.

Bedbugs bite and suck blood from humans. Bedbugs are most active at night and bite any exposed areas of skin while an individual is sleeping. The face, neck, hands, and arms are common sites for bedbug bites. The bite itself is painless and is not noticed. Small, flat, or raised bumps on the skin are the most common sign; redness, swelling, and itching commonly occur. If scratched, the bite areas can become infected. A peculiarity of bedbug bites is the tendency to find several bites lined up in a row. Infectious-disease specialists refer to this series of bites as the "breakfast, lunch, and dinner" sign, signifying the sequential feeding that occurs from site to site.

Bedbug bites may go unnoticed or be mistaken for flea or mosquito bites or other types of rash or skin conditions, since they are difficult to distinguish from other bites. Bedbugs also have glands whose secretions may leave odors, and they also may leave dark fecal spots on bedsheets and around their hiding places (in crevices or protected areas around the bed or anywhere in the room).

Bedbugs have not been conclusively proven to carry infectious microbes. However, researchers have implicated bedbugs as possible vectors of American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), and studies are ongoing to determine whether bedbugs may serve as carriers of other diseases.

The majority of bedbug bites are not serious. The only known serious consequences are severe allergic reactions, which have been reported in some people after bedbug bites.

Reviewed by William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR on 6/21/2013

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MedicineNet: Bed Bugs