Bed Bug Epidemic: A Challenge to Public Health

In recent years, reported cases of bed bug infestations in the U.S. and throughout the world have escalated dramatically, posing a global public health problem. Although bed bugs are not known to transmit disease to humans, they pose both direct and indirect public health challenges in terms of health effects, treatment, cost, and resource allocation and coordination. Education is an important component of prevention and treatment of infestations and health educators can play a key role in educating the public about this re-emerging problem and in organizing community-based responses. Therefore, the two goals of this paper were to: (1) provide an overview of the public health threat from bed bug infestations, and (2) provide prevention and treatment guidance for health educators to utilize in educating the public about this challenge.