By Asmau Ahmad
The Federal Government has heightened surveillance at all points of entry following the outbreak of bed bug infestation in France and other parts of Europe.
This was disclosed in a press statement signed by the Director of Media & Public Relations at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Patricia Deworitshe.
A recent wave of bed bugs has been sighted across Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport to the Paris metro, high-speed trains, movie theatres, and more.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, however, noted that the ministry remains committed to ensuring that appropriate public measures and responses are put in place to contain bed bug infestation nationwide.
He revealed that the ministry has developed a draft sheet, which will be in circulation soon to strengthen awareness and health education on the control of bed bugs.
Prof. Pate urged the public to cooperate with Port Health Officers at points of entry in the course of their surveillance activities.
Bed bugs are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep.
Bed bugs are reddish-brown in colour, wingless, range from 1mm to 7mm (roughly the size of Lincoln’s head on a penny), and can live several months without a blood meal.
The blood-sucking insects usually occur around or near the areas where people sleep.
These areas include apartments, shelters, rooming houses, hotels, cruise ships, buses, trains, and dorm rooms.
They hide during the day in places such as seams of mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards, dresser tables, inside cracks or crevices, behind wallpaper, or any other clutter or objects around a bed.
