Sanitation and health workers in Cameroon are disinfecting homes to kill bedbugs that have infested the central African state’s capital, Yaounde, and several towns and villages.

Government officials say the bloodsucking bugs are imported by travelers from Europe, where some countries are also experiencing infestation. Cameroon residents say they are expecting teams from the central African state’s hygiene and sanitation service to come to their homes to help get rid of the bugs.

Fruit seller Kuffo Marilyne lives in Madagascar, a neighborhood in Yaounde. She said she first used insecticides to get rid of the bugs in her home, thinking they were little cockroaches. She said she was surprised when three of her children developed insomnia and experienced irritation after they were bitten by the insects.

Bedbug bites leave blisters or large rashes on the skin, health workers say. Kuffo said she took her children to the hospital for treatment, but that a majority of her neighbors who also reported bedbugs in their homes are poor and unable to get their children medical care.

Cameroon’s government reported that huge numbers of bedbugs have infested homes in several poor Yaounde neighborhoods. Cameron’s Health ministry said the bugs come out at night to feed on human blood and often cause psychological distress, sleeping issues, anxiety and depression.

The government said it has dispatched several hundred sanitary and health workers to disinfect homes and kill the bugs. Mariline Longue a medical staff member at the Cite Verte District Hospital in Yaounde, said more than 70 per cent of people in some of Yaounde’s congested neighborhoods have reported bedbugs in their homes and shops.

Longue said 24 of the 30 houses they visited in Cameroon’s capital on Wednesday morning had huge numbers of bedbugs hidden in mattresses, cracks of bed frames, chairs and couches. The government said besides Yaounde and the economic hub Douala, there are fears several other towns and villages have been infested.