Of Bedbugs, Kudis Buta And Killer Microbes

A Kadir Jasin

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THERE’S a saying, what goes around comes around. Now it’s the turn of the United States of America to feel being on the receiving end – being the victim.

Having imposed its hegemony on the Third World, especially the Muslim nations, in the post-Cold War period, the US is now being invaded not by the Muslim terrorists, but by a more sinister enemy – the bedbugs.

In the latest bug story, the Associated Press reported from Columbus, Ohio that a resurgence of bedbugs across the U.S. is having homeowners and apartment dwellers taking desperate measures to eradicate the tenacious bloodsuckers, with some relying on dangerous outdoor pesticides and fly-by-night exterminators.

Like the US soldiers and the Pentagon warmongers using drone and cluster bombs on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan to flush out the “enemies”, the American house owners and dwellers are resorting to dangerous chemicals and pesticides to rid themselves of the bugs.

The problem, according to the AP report, has become so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency this month warned against the indoor use of chemicals meant for the outside. The agency also warned of an increase in pest control companies and others making "unrealistic promises of effectiveness or low cost."

Well, being a product of the time gone by, I am all too familiar with bedbugs. They were the curse. They sucked your blood when you were asleep and emitted foul smell if you squashed them.

Once, they even took a ride with me – crawling on my spanking white long-sleeved shirt -- when I was riding the iconic Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang bus to work back in 1969.

I was then staying at a cheap hotel in Jalan Datuk Keramat, across the road from the police station, with a dear Bernama friend, Nik Mohammed Omar. Other long-term guests included two Punjabi men, a young Chinese couple, whose intimacy was a noisy affair, and a Malay cabaret dancer and her young son.

The attacks started almost as soon as we moved in. First it was bearable. Being young and pooped after a long day at the office, we could still sleep pretty soundly. But when the attacks became unbearable, we moved to the newly completed Kampung Melayu flat in Jalan Air Itam.

We made a big mistake. We did not rid ourselves and our clothe of the blood-sucking bugs. They followed us. Now we had not only the blood sucking bugs to contend with, but we also the nightly screaming of the womenfolk, whose hysteria was blamed on an old woman accused of dabbling in black magic with the collusion of a pelesit – an evil spirit.

According to Malay folklore, a pelesit loves to suck human blood and would manifest itself as a grasshopper. In my younger days, the standing instruction was to whack the “belalang pelesit” – a type of nocturnal grasshopper that frequently entered the house – to pulp.

Until this day, I believe that the women became hysterical because they were not used to living in high-rise cramped quarters. They were mostly local residents who were “forced” to move to the flat in the aftermath of the May 13 racial riots, when squatters and shanties were demolished to make way for council flats.

While the Malays were haunted by the pelesit and their womenfolk suffered occasional hysteria, the Chinese at the nearby Riffle Range flats were jumping off the building with frightening regularity.

One beaten twice shy. So when I was being transferred to Alor Star in 1970, I took the precaution not to bring the bugs with me. I boiled all my clothes and doused my suite case with hot water. I filled four bowls with water and placed a Coca Cola bottle in each of them, and then placed my suite case on them. Yahoo, I arrived in Alor Star sans the bug. Since then, I saw the bugs only once -- in a rural home in Perak. I had planned to spend the night there. But on seeing my mortal enemies, I beat a hasty retreat.

The bedbugs now infesting the American homes, on a scale unseen in more than a half-century, have become largely resistant to common pesticides, according to the AP. As a result, some homeowners and exterminators are turning to more hazardous chemicals that can harm the central nervous system, irritate the skin and eyes or even cause cancer.

Ohio authorities, struggling against widespread infestations in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and other cities, are pleading with EPA to approve the indoor use of the pesticide propoxur, which the agency considers a probable carcinogen and banned for in-home use in 2007. About 25 other states are supporting Ohio's request for an emergency exemption. EPA rejected the request in June.

The bugs are no where near being exterminated, but in their desperation the Americans are self-destructing. Authorities around the country have blamed house fires on people misusing all sorts of highly flammable garden and lawn chemicals to fight the bugs.

It does not surprise me if, at some point of time, some xenophobic Americans, will blame Osama Ben Ladin, the Taliban or some sinister Muslim organisations for unleashing the cimex lectularius on them.

But here in Malaysia, as we celebrated our 53 Merdeka anniversary yesterday, the bed bugs are still lurking somewhere and more microbes, which at one time were killing people by the hundreds, are making a vengeful comeback as manifested by the deadly Melioidosis and Leptospirosis outbreak in Pahang not too long ago.

Unless our health authorities are vigilant and we maintain our hygiene, common afflictions like scabies (kudis buta) and intestinal worms, will come back to haunt us. In my days, the highly contagious kudis buta, which is caused by mite (kutu) sarcoptes scabiei, was so common that no boys and girls were without scabs (parut) the size of a five- or 10-sen coins.

And in the worst case of worm infection, you were left with skin and bones, your stomach bloated (perut boroi) and you literally vomited live worms. Those were the hard days when you were not sure when or if the next meal would come.