Bedbug Bacteria

Bedbugs found carrying two types of drug-resistant bacteria.
The Washington Post (5/12, Sun) reports that "a peer-reviewed study (pdf) published online Wednesday in" the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicates that bedbugs "could play a role in transmitting disease. In a tiny sample of bedbugs, collected from a small number of residents living in crowded conditions in a poor neighborhood in Canada, researchers found the drug-resistant bacterium known as MRSA."
For the study, USA Today (5/12, Weise) reports, "researchers took five bedbugs that patients had brought in and crushed and analyzed them." Not only did investigators find "MRSA on three of them," they also found on the other two bedbugs "VRE – vancomycin-resistant enterococcus faecium, a less dangerous form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria."
The AP (5/12, Stobbe) reports, "Bedbugs have not been known to spread disease, and there's no clear evidence that the five bedbugs found on the patients or their belongings had spread MRSA or a second less dangerous drug-resistant germ." Nevertheless, "bedbugs can cause itching that can lead to excessive scratching. That can cause breaks in the skin that make people more susceptible to these bacteria, noted...one of the study's authors."
According to HealthDay (5/11, Preidt), "These findings suggest that bedbugs may act as a 'hidden environmental reservoir' that promotes the spread of MRSA in overcrowded and impoverished communities, the researchers said in a CDC news release." The researchers concluded, "Further studies are needed to characterize the association between S. aureus and bedbugs."
Also covering the story were the National Journal (5/12, Fox, Subscription Publication), Bloomberg News (5/11, Peterson), the Los Angeles Times (5/11, Cevallos) "Booster Shots" blog, and WebMD (5/11, DeNoon).