Pregnant women in labour at Ndirande Health Centre in Blantyre are facing a double discomfort of childbirth labour and the high presence of bedbugs at the facility\u2019s labour ward.<\/p>\n
Blantyre District Health office has since confirmed a bedbug outbreak in the district.<\/p>\n
Bedbugs are small, night-time, wingless insects that belong to the family of Cimicidae. They feed on human blood and other warm-blooded hosts. They are oval in shape and grow up to four to five mm long when fully grown. Their skin colour is rust brown to a deeper red brown.<\/p>\n
The women we met in the ward on Wednesday said there are lots of mosquitoes but they are scared to use the mosquito nets because they have lots of bedbugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t use the nets despite having a lot of mosquitoes here. I\u2019m afraid I may get other infections. There are new nets in the nurses\u2019 office but we were told that they can\u2019t give them to us because it\u2019s us (patients) that brought in the bedbugs so it\u2019s better for them to keep the nets for now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
District Health Officer (DHO) for Blantyre, Dr Medson Matchaya, while confirming the outbreak in Blantyre, said the facility recently received mosquito nets and its management is supposed to decide on when to use them.<\/p>\n
He disclosed that his office has received a lot of complaints from the public including boarding schools about the existence of bedbugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure it might have spread to more of our facilities just that it has not been brought to our attention yet. There is need for comprehensive spraying but our office currently does not have the resources to do that. We are calling on well-wishers to help us out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ministry of Health Spokesperson, Adrian Chikumbe said the ministry has received reports of bedbug outbreaks in many districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cBedbugs cause a lot of discomfort. Meanwhile there are no known diseases that bedbugs can spread but they can be a nuisance. Continued scratching may expose the skin to infections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chikumbe said bedbugs can be transferred from one place to another through materials like clothes and furniture, adding, \u201cWe would like to encourage community involvement whenever bedbugs strike. People should immediately contact the nearest health facility for advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further advised the public to put their belongings in the sun to dry and wash the things that are suspected to have bedbugs with hot water.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cBedbugs like to hide in cracks so it\u2019s also important to ensure that all cracks are filled. Spraying is also another way of getting rid of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
CDC website says bedbugs are found across the globe from North and South America to Africa, Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n
It says although their presence has traditionally been seen as a problem in developing countries, it has recently been spreading rapidly in parts of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other parts of Europe.<\/p>\n
Some information about bedbugs<\/p>\n
Everyone is at risk of getting bedbugs when visiting an infected area. But those who travel frequently and share living and sleeping quarters where other people have previously slept have a higher risk of being bitten and or spreading a bedbug infestation.<\/p>\n
– The bedbugs\u2019 exoskeletons after molting,<\/p>\n
– Bedbugs in the fold of mattresses and sheets,<\/p>\n
– Rusty\u2013colored blood spots due to their blood-filled fecal material that they excrete on the mattress or nearby furniture\u2014 Source: CDC website<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pregnant women in labour at Ndirande Health Centre in Blantyre are facing a double discomfort of childbirth labour and the high presence of bedbugs at the facility\u2019s labour ward. Blantyre District Health office has since confirmed a bedbug outbreak in the district. Bedbugs are small, night-time, wingless insects that belong to the family of Cimicidae. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46333,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46329\/revisions\/46333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}