FRIDAY, Sept. 3 (HealthDay News) — From sunny California to New York City, in flophouses, theaters and high-end offices, bedbugs are popping up in droves although, these days, they’re found in a lot more places than just your bed.

According to a National Pest Management Association (NPMA)/University of Kentucky report, 95 percent of U.S. pest management companies surveyed said they had “encountered a bedbug infestation in the past year.”

In New York City, the irascible little critters have forced temporary closures of a Times Square movie theater as well as tony retail chains Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret. They’ve moved into the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, not to mention the rarefied halls of Elle magazine. Bedbug complaints from city residents have soared from just over 500 in 2004 to 10,000 in 2009, according to news reports.

In Ohio, dubbed the new “Bedbug Capital of the United States,” some residents have taken to sleeping on the streets just to get away from their co-habitants, reported Time magazine. But other areas are getting bitten, too. According to exterminator company Terminix, while Ohio is the most infested state, the top five cities for bedbugs are New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cinncinnati and Chicago.

They’ve even made it to California, with reports of outbreaks at hotels in Monterey and Big Sur.

Why the comeback? Experts are blaming the resurgence largely on a surge in humans traveling internationally.

“There has been increased travel, particularly international travel, and that really speaks to how bedbugs move around,” said Missy Henrikson, NPMA vice president of public affairs. “They need humans for their very survival so they have become more mobile and move right along with people. They’re hitchhikers.”

And travel begets more travel and more infestations. “They are taking up residence in people’s homes and because of that they are now traveling about throughout the day with people, going into atypical locations, such as movie theaters, retail establishments, hospitals, schools, day care centers, laundromats — all of the places where people travel during course of their day,” Henrikson said.

Add to that the fact that bedbugs are now resistant to a number of pesticides.

“DDT is the insecticide that really made them extinct up through the latter part of the last century. Then when DDT was banned, they gradually became resistant to a number of commonly used insecticides,” said Dr. Pascal James Imperato, dean of the School of Public Health at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center.

Now that they’re back, they generally like places where there is a lot of turnover, he added, like dormitories, homeless shelters and hotel rooms, including high-end hotels.

“Bedbugs are very happy in either a very clean environment or a very dirty environment,” Imperato said. “What they basically need is a warm host and plenty of good hiding places so that even very clean houses and high end hotels can harbor bedbugs. They’re found everywhere. They’re very democratic.”

And once they’ve established themselves, they’re awfully hard to get rid of.

“Our industry has identified bedbugs as being the single most difficult pest to eliminate, more so than termites, more so than ants, more so than rodents,” said Henrikson. “They can live up to a year without eating, so they can be hiding behind your wallboards, under your rugs, in your clothing, underneath your couch, in hiding waiting for a time when they need to feed.” Female bedbugs can produce 400 offspring in her lifetime, she added.

So, trying to exterminate them on your own probably won’t cut it. “Usually the best way to get rid of bedbugs is to call in a professional exterminator,” Imperato said. “One shouldn’t try to deal with it oneself.”

In addition to certain insecticides, pest control companies are getting pretty creative with other tools, including bedbug-sniffing dogs, heating a house up to 140 degrees to kill the critters and even the “freeze” treatment, using frozen carbon dioxide, said Dr. Mike Merchant, professor and extension urban entomologist at Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M University in Dallas.

The silver lining is that bedbugs don’t transmit disease and don’t pose any huge health problem, outside of stress and anxiety. The latter can be significant, however.

“People who are getting them are flipping out and putting insecticides all over themselves and the house. There’s a lot of stress around this,” said Dini Miller, associate professor at the Dodson Urban Pest Management Laboratory at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. “It’s an inhumane situation living with thousands of bugs that are in your bed. You go into your house and how does anyone manage to deal with this?”

“It’s a public health threat in that it causes a lot of anxiety and mental stress and it certainly has an impact on people,” Merchant added. “People are freaked out by something feeding on their blood at night.”

A World Health Organization official also defended the U.N.’s health body against accusations that it wasted governments’ money and enriched pharmaceutical companies with its strong warnings during the swine flu outbreak’s early days last year.  WHO declared the swine flu pandemic over last month. The latest death toll is just over 18,600 — far below the millions that were once predicted. The head of the global health body has credited good preparation and luck, since the H1N1 swine flu virus didn’t mutate as some had feared.

But speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an influenza conference in Hong Kong, researcher Robert Webster warned against complacency.  “We may think we can relax and influenza is no longer a problem. I want to assure you that that is not the case,” said Webster, chairman of the virology and molecular biology department at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Webster predicted that the next pandemic could be sparked by a virus that spreads from water fowl to pigs and then onto humans — such as the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 300 people over the past seven years. He noted that after several years of decline, the number of bird flu cases in humans increased in 2009, lifted by an uptick of cases in Egypt.  “H5N1 can kill 61 percent of humans infected, but it doesn’t know how to spread from human to human. But don’t trust it because it could acquire that capacity. So we must stay vigilant,” he said.
Source:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39014647/ns/health/

New research suggests that at least one in seven home kitchens would flunk the kind of health inspection commonly administered to restaurants.

The small study from California’s Los Angeles County found that only 61 percent of home kitchens would get an A or B if put through the rigors of a restaurant inspection. At least 14 percent would fail - not even getting a C.

“I would say if they got below a C, I’m not sure I would like them to invite me to dinner,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

In comparison, nearly all Los Angeles County restaurants _ 98 percent _ get A or B scores each year.

The study, released Thursday, is believed to be one of the first to offer a sizable assessment of food safety in private homes. But the researchers admit the way it was done is hardly perfect.

The results are based not on actual inspections, but on an Internet quiz taken by about 13,000 adults. So it’s hard to use it to compare the conditions in home kitchens to those in restaurants, which involve trained inspectors giving objective assessments of dirt, pests, and food storage and handling practices. What’s more, experts don’t believe the study is representative of all households, because people who are more interested and conscientious about food safety are more likely to take the quiz.

“You’ll miss a big population who don’t have home computers or just really don’t care” about the cleanliness of their kitchens, said Martin Bucknavage, a food safety specialist with Penn State University’s Department of Food Science.

A more comprehensive look would probably find that an even smaller percentage of home kitchens would do well in a restaurant inspection, he suggested.

In 2006, the county health department began a home kitchen self-inspection program, designed to help consumers learn how to store and prepare food safely. The department also began offering an online quiz with 45 yes or no questions that simulates a restaurant inspection checklist.

People are asked, for example, if their refrigerator temperature is 41 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, whether raw meat is stored below other foods on refrigerator shelves, and whether fruits and vegetables are always thoroughly rinsed before they are eaten.

The study is based on quizzes taken through 2008. Overall, 34 percent got an A, meaning they correctly answered at least 90 percent of the questions. Another 27 percent got a B, 25 percent a C, and 14 percent failed to score at least a 70.

An estimated 87 million cases of food-borne illness occur in the United States each year, including 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths, according to an Associated Press calculation that uses a CDC formula and recent population estimates.

Many outbreaks that receive publicity are centered on people who got sick after eating at a restaurant, catered celebration or large social gathering. In this summer’s outbreak linked to salmonella in eggs, several illnesses were first identified in clusters among restaurant patrons.

But experts believe the bulk of food poisonings are unreported illnesses from food prepared at home. The study is being published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Pepsi Refresh is a project where Pepsi gives away millions each month to fund refreshing ideas that will make a positive impact on the community.  The idea with the most votes wins in each category.  We made it into the October voting round in the Health category for $250,000.   

Our idea is to bring Project Fit America to 12 elementary schools in our area.  This is a great program that you can read more about at www.projectfitamerica.org .  Schools that were included in the idea are: Russell Primary, Russell-McDowell, Summit Elementary, Ponderosa Elementary, Catlettsburg Elementary, Campbell Elementary, Worthington Elementary, Argillite Elementary, Greysbranch Elementary, McKell Elementary, Wurtland Elementary, and Holy Family.

Although voting doesn’t start until October 1^st, I would like to spend September rallying people to vote and marketing our idea as much as possible.  Like I mentioned earlier, the idea with the most votes wins!  So we just need everyone to vote daily!!    Plus, we are helping our local schools!

If you are connected to a large group of people (whether it be a website, an organization, a club, schools, etc.) we will need your help rallying!  I plan to create a facebook page, talk to schools and get their students to vote, email all of my personal friends and work friends, pass out flyers, etc.  Basically anything and everything to win the $250,000 for our schools!  If you have any ideas or would like to help with this project, please contact me. 

I believe that if we rally our community, we can win this for our children!

I will continue to keep you informed about the project.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Have a great day!

Laura Patrick

Kentucky Heart Foundation

Laura.Patrick@kyheartfoundation.com

Office: 606.324.1544

Fax: 606.325.0389

WHAT IS NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH? 

National Preparedness Month (NPM) is sponsored by the

Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and the Advertising Council. NPM is held each September to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities.

September 2010 is the seventh annual NPM. This year will focus on encouraging Americans to work together to take concrete actions toward emergency preparedness. We are encouraging all Americans to join the readiness team and truly help themselves, their neighbors, and their communities be Ready

. • NPM Coalition membership is open to all public and private sector organizations. Groups can register to become an NPM Coalition Member by visiting ready.gov and clicking on the NPM banner.

• In 2009, nearly 2,700 organizations joined the Ready Campaign in promoting the readiness message across the country in homes, schools, businesses, and communities to highlight the importance of individual and community public emergency preparedness throughout September.

• During NPM, Coalition Members share preparedness information with their members, customers, employees, and communities. Members spearhead activities that encourage specific steps for individual, neighborhood, and community preparedness.

• Throughout the year, the Ready Campaign promotes individual emergency preparedness. Ready is a national public service advertising (PSA) campaign, produced in partnership with The Advertising Council, to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks.

• The Campaign’s Web sites (ready.gov and listo.gov) and toll-free numbers (1-800-BE-READY, TTY 1-800-462-7585, and 1-888-SE-LISTO) provide Americans with free emergency preparedness information.

• Citizen Corps is FEMA’s grassroots strategy to bring together government and community leaders to involve citizens in all-hazards emergency preparedness and resilience. Local Citizen Corps Councils enable collaborative planning between government and civic leaders and provide localized support for: outreach and educational efforts to the public; training and exercises that effectively integrate all sectors of the community; and volunteer programs that augment the full range of emergency response services. For more information about Citizen Corps, visit www.citizencorps.gov.