The Sion Hospital swears by the adage 'A stitch in time saves nine'. It has decided to start a pilot project to study the role of bed bugs in the spread of drug-resistant bacterium strain MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in civic hospitals.
The hospital's call comes in the wake of the finding of the staph bacteria in bed bugs from three hospital patients abroad early this year.
The study is aimed at probing links in the city between bed bugs and the MRSA strain or the superbug, which can prove deadly if it enters the bloodstream.
Dr Suleman Merchant, head of the radiology department, Sion Hospital, justified the need for such a project. "During a recent seminar I attended in Goregaon, the Vancouver study was discussed, in which they found bed bugs passing on the superbug among patients. In our country, too, bed bugs are rampant in public hospitals. We, therefore, decided to have a pilot study done in our hospital to find the prevalence and magnitude of the problem here."
The study will be conducted by the preventive and social medicine department and the microbiology department of the LTMG, Sion Hospital.
MRSA, which can be hospital or community-acquired, passes on to a human only upon the bite of a bed bug that carries the strain and if he/she scratches the bitten area thereafter.
Dr Om Shrivastav, an infectious diseases expert in the Jaslok Hospital who frequently comes across MRSA infections, said, "The MRSA germs' prevalence in Mumbai is far more than we can acknowledge. Only a study can actually help us get a clear picture. Most MRSA infections either go undiagnosed or are diagnosed late, which leads to multiple complications in the patient."
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