HealthWatch-Summer bedbugs
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - You probably look forward to your vacation each year. But there is sometimes a downside to being on the road and away from home. Doctor Taylor Kapsch from Creekside Medical Clinic looks at one of those occasional problems in this week’s edition of HealthWatch.
“When traveling this summer and sleeping in a bed other than your own, there’s always a risk that you could be sharing the sheets with unwelcome tiny guests. Bedbugs are small bugs that do not fly. They are found all over the world and can live in hotels, houses and other places people rest and sleep. They can live in your mattress, your clothes, your walls and other parts of your home. Most often, they bite you while you are sleeping or resting. If you do have bedbugs in your home, you might not be able to see them as they are very small and typically hide during the day. Typically, they do not spread diseases from people to people. Bedbug bites are small swollen areas of the skin that are often in a row or aligned on parts of the body not usually covered by clothes, such as the face, neck, arms and hands. Typically, the bite sites can be very itchy and can be pink, brown or red. Most people don’t even feel that they’ve been bitten but notice the bites the next morning or a day or two after the initial bite. Sometimes bedbug bites can take three to six weeks to heal and they can often get infected if you scratch them a lot. To help bites feel better and heal faster, keep the skin clean and dry, try not to scratch the bites and consider using an anti-itch cream to help with any itching. You should see your doctor if you have any increase of redness, swelling or if there is any drainage coming out of the lesion that is a pus-like material. This could be a sign that your bites are infected. If you find you have bedbugs, you need to get rid of the bedbugs in your home in order to avoid any further bites. Some things you could do to eradicate bedbugs would include vacuuming your home, washing your clothes and bedding and drying them in the dryer at the hottest heat setting possible. They’re often hard to get rid of yourself, however, and it may warrant a pest control service. I’m Taylor Kapsch with Creeekside Medical Clinic with today’s HealthWatch.”
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