A Levittown woman infested with highly contagious bird mites -- parasitic arachnids spread by wild birds -- was in quarantine Friday after she was evacuated from her home swathed in a hazardous material suit, police said.

Nina Bradica, 45, was put into the haz-mat suit to prevent the tiny, ravenous creatures on her skin from infecting the police officers, firefighters and EMTs who put her into an ambulance Thursday night and took her to a hospital quarantine unit.

Bradica, speaking by phone from her room at Nassau University Medical Center, said Friday she was "hanging in there" but could still feel the mites on her skin.

"I feel [them] biting, just like someone pricking you with a needle, and you can feel them crawl, like a piece of hair is tickling you," she said.

Bradica's doctors held a Friday morning news conference on her condition at the East Meadow hospital, complete with an enlarged photo of the eight-legged, spider-like mite.

"This is not a public health threat," said Dr. Ken Steier, dean of academic affairs at the hospital. "These mites are very ubiquitous."


FULL STORY

i have nothing to add here except that i'm really, really glad that i didn't read this when i was on meth.

You'd think if they wanted to put the public at ease , they wouldn't use scary-sounding words like 'ubiquitous'.