Bed bugs: The new scourge of the poor

Bed bugs are a serious public health problem that affects people in all types of housing and at all income levels. However, the bugs may have a disproportionate impact on poor people. This presentation looks at reasons that bed bugs disproportionately affect the poor and challenges that poor people face in attempting to obtain and maintain housing that is bed bug free. The session will cover shortcomings of legal remedies established by landlord-tenant laws and discuss and compare approaches that some state and local governments have taken by enacting bed bug specific laws. Although bed bugs are not known to cause disease, they are “environmentally communicable” spreading from place to place. Like disease, they cause great suffering and must be addressed by the entire community as a public health issue. This presentation will explore efforts to educate and organize landlords, tenants, and the wider community to take shared responsibility for prevention, surveillance, early identification and integrated response and treatment to eliminate this scourge that has returned from long ago.