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Rems bed bugs

Date post: 31-Jul-2015
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“What’s bugging you?” Rotterdam Emergency Medical Services Douglas Hexel, AEMT-P, NYS CLI Bed Bugs
Transcript

“What’s bugging you?”

Rotterdam Emergency Medical ServicesDouglas Hexel, AEMT-P, NYS CLI

Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs

• As contact with infested homes and patients increase, it’s important to know the basics.

• Many of you may have seen some recent news articles detailing reactions of local fire and EMS agencies to bed bug contact.

• This is intended to guide you through your rather unpleasant experience.

Agenda

• What are bed bugs?• What can I catch from bed bugs?• How do bed bugs infest?• Will bed bugs infest me?• Will bed bugs infest our gear?• Will bed bugs infest the station?• What to do with bed bugs?• Should we decon?

What are bed bugs?

What are bed bugs?

• Bed bugs are small, parasitic insects of the cimicid family.

• Bed bugs feed exclusively on blood, usually human but sometimes from other mammals.

• Bed bugs are mainly active at night but are NOT exclusively nocturnal.

• Fully-grown adult bed bugs can reach 5mm in length

What are bed bugs?

• Bed bugs are found mostly in warm, dark areas like mattresses and furniture.

• Bed bugs can live up to a year without feeding.• Prolonged contact is required to allow bed

bugs to infest in clothing or equipment.• Bed bugs do NOT live on the skin of hosts but

can be found on their clothing.

What can I catch from bed bugs?

• Bed bug bites result mainly in skin rashes that can be worse when accompanied with a localized allergic reaction to the bites.

What can I catch from bed bugs?

• Bed bug do NOT transmit any communicable diseases to humans.

• Unlike other mites such as scabies and head lice, person-to-person transmission is very unlikely.

How do bed bugs infest?

• Bed bugs generally nest in furniture but can nest in clothing and bags.

• Bed bugs are slow and do not jump or fly so prolonged contact is needed for bed bugs to nest into EMS bags or equipment.

Will bed bugs infest me?

• If bed bugs get onto a responder, there are usually too few to cause any further infestation.

• They may be able to bite you and be on your clothing, but they are HIGHLY unlikely to be spread further.

• Remember, bed bugs cannot live on skin but can only live on a person on their clothing.

Will bed bugs infest our gear?

• While bed bugs may be able to climb into or onto EMS bags, they will not prefer to nest in these.

• There will not be enough bed bugs to nest and reproduce, infesting the bag.

• The most likely place for a bed bug to nest would be on the cot, but that’s one of the reasons we use linens.

Will bed bugs infest the station?

• It is more likely for an employee to unknowingly bring bed bugs from home and infest the station than it is to bring bed bugs back from a call and infest the station.

• As mentioned previously, prolonged contact with clothing or personal items is required for enough bed bugs to nest and be transmitted to other articles to infest.

What to do with bed bugs?

• We have a distinct advantage against bed bugs: we can see them. – Unlike other mites, bed bugs are big enough to see!– If you don’t see them, you’re probably not infested!

What to do with bed bugs?

• If you come in contact with someone infested with bed bugs, the most important thing is to wrap the patient in a sheet or blanket. This should contain the bugs on the patient.

• Continue to try to set gear and bags down on hard floors or surfaces, not clothes, beds, or carpets.

• Be certain to leave ALL linen from the cot at the hospital (this is done with every call anyway)

What to do with bed bugs?

• If you believe you may have bed bugs on you, return to the station and change into your spare uniform (everyone should keep a spare uniform with them)

• Wash your clothing at the station. Heat from residential clothes dryers are sufficient to kill ALL bed bugs if they aren’t killed in the washer.

What to do with bed bugs?

• If you feel the need, quickly shower at the station. Remember, bed bugs do not live on skin so IF you did have any on you, they likely came off with your clothes.

What to do with bed bugs?

• Bed bugs will not infest the back of the ambulance.

• Prolonged decontamination of the back of the ambulance is NOT necessary.

• Bed bugs do not prefer hard surfaces so if you regularly wipe your cot mattress after every call, you’ll be good.

What to do with bed bugs?

• The only place bed bugs may prefer in an ambulance are the front CLOTH seats.

• If you think you may have bed bugs on you, throw a sheet on the front seat before riding back to the station. Wash that sheet along with your clothing.

• Bed bugs are HIGHLY unlikely to infest in the ambulance.

Should we decon?

• Remember, bed bugs are highly unlikely to be transmitted in the short amount of time we have contact with patients.

• Bed bug transmission will be prevented by our normal, everyday clean up and disposal of used linen.

• You may shower and wash your uniform, but prolong decon of ambulances and gear is unnecessary.

Conclusion

Bed bugs are becoming more prevalent and we’re sure to see more people infested than we’ve ever seen before.

Bed bugs are highly unlikely to infest us, our gear, or our ambulance.

Full, systematic decontamination of gear and ambulances after bed bug calls is not necessary.

Questions/Comments

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Please direct them to me at [email protected]


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