seam bugs can give you nasty bites and a lifetime of nightmares , but scientists have long wondered if the creepy parasite can make pass diseases to their legion . For years , the general consensus was no : Unlike ticks , mosquitos , and other insects that are do it to feast on human blood , bed hemipteron are n’t packing any harmful pathogens in their bite . Yet according to a new work , spot byGizmodo , the germ do n’t need to nibble on us to make us tired of . Histamines in their ninny might be exacerbate our resistant systems .
For their study , recently published in the journalPLOS One , scientists at North Carolina State University tested the dust in a bed hemipteran - infested apartment complex . They find that samples from some infested home had histamine levels 20 time higher than those without bed bugs . This was still the case three months after the buildings had been treated by exterminators .
Histamineis a chemical chemical compound produced by our body . In small amount , it turn as a full of life part of our resistant system . It ’s activated in the presence of allergens , irritants , and pathogen . Say a puff of dust goes up your nose : Histamine is what cue your body to sneeze it out . It ’s also the culprit behind the reeking eye , fluid nose , and itchy peel you might experience during an allergy onrush ( which is why you might take an antihistamine to lull these symptoms ) .
But we ’re not alone in our ability to create histamine . Recent research has shown that the chemical substance is present in bed bug faecal matter . When the insects poop , they spray histamine into the same melodic phrase that homeowners breathe . A few whiffs of the stuff is likely nothing to occupy about , but scientist are concerned about the effects environmental histamine can have on people over an extended period of time . The chemical compound can cause allergic reactions on its own and possibly make us more vulnerable to exist allergen . The implications are especially serious for people with asthma .
" Dermal , nasal , or respiratory responses ( e.g. bronchial responsiveness ) to histamine in clinical tests suggest that exposure to histamine in the surroundings would represent a important wellness risk , although data on environmental photograph is limited , " the study authors write .
For now , scientist can do nothing but speculate on what these results might signify for public wellness . human being are prepared to treat only histamine that ’s produced by our own soundbox , and dealing with the consequence on histamine spread by bed bugs is unmapped soil for doctors and scientists . How precisely bed bugs obtain the chemical in the first place is also unclear , but research worker mistrust that it ’s a combination of the blood they nurse from us and histamine they make on their own as a character of pheromone , indicating to other bed bug that a situation is safe to invade .
[ h / tGizmodo ]
