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Son: Bedbug bites caused rash that stopped flight

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Apr 27, 2012 at 2:46 pm

CHICAGO (AP) — It turns out a misunderstanding about bedbugs was behind a decision to quarantine a jet in Chicago out of fear that someone aboard might have monkeypox.

On Friday, the son of a Minnesota woman on the plane explained that she inadvertently set off the chain of events when she mentioned to her mother that a baby she was trying to adopt in Uganda had some pus-filled sores and that she, herself, had been bitten by some bedbugs in a hotel.

Roger Sievers says that those comments by his mom, Lese, prompted his grandmother to call a local hospital, which led to more calls and a quarantine of the plane long enough to determine that the woman did, in fact, have bedbug bites.