Washington, May 12 : Scientists in Canada have found MRSA- a dangerous drug-resistant bacteria- in bedbugs from three hospital patients who live in a poverty-stricken Vancouver neighborhood.

But Marc Romney- a microbiologist at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver- said there's no evidence of whether or not the bedbugs actually spread the MRSA bacteria or another less dangerous drug-resistant germ, but the study is "an intriguing finding" that needs to be looked at further, reports Fox News.

The hospital is located near the poor downtown neighborhood where the three patients live, and when Romney and his colleagues saw a spike in both bedbugs and MRSA in the area, they decided to see if there was any correlation.

For the study, five bedbugs were crushed and analyzed. MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was found on three bugs.

MRSA is resistant to several types of common antibiotics and can become deadly if it gets through the skin and into the bloodstream.

Two bugs had VRE, or vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus Faecium, a less dangerous form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

It''s not clear if the bacteria originated with the bedbugs or if the bugs picked it up from already infected people, Romney added.

The study was released Wednesday by Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (ANI)