Deadly ‘Kissing Bug’ Disease Chagas Has Spread in the U.S. — Here’s Which States Are Affected
Health and Wellbeing · Medical · Men & Womens Health

Deadly ‘Kissing Bug’ Disease Chagas Has Spread in the U.S. — Here’s Which States Are Affected

Looking for the Light

Chagas disease, which is spread through an insect known as the “kissing bug,” has spread to 32 states in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the triatomine insect  — called the “kissing bug” because it bites people on the face — has been found in several southern U.S. states, and that hundreds of thousands of people could already be infected without knowing.

Human infections have been identified in eight states — Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and California — according to a map on the CDC’s website. Cases of Chagas disease in animals have also been found in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland.

Deadly ‘kissing bug’ disease Chagas has spread in the U.S. — Here’s the Multiple States Affected

The CDC said, per UCLA Health, that more than 300,000 people in the U.S. — including 45,000 people in Los Angeles County — could be affected with Chagas disease. However, fewer than 2% of those people know they carry the parasite transmitted by the “kissing bug.”

Deadly ‘kissing bug’ disease Chagas has spread in the U.S. — Here’s the Multiple States Affected

A map of where Chagas disease infections have been reported, via the CDC.

cdc.gov

Judith Currier, MD, chief of infectious diseases at UCLA Health, explained, “Most people living with Chagas disease are unaware of their diagnosis, often until it’s too late to have effective treatment.”

The disease spreads through triatomine insect bites, per UCLA Health. Once the insect bites people on their face, they defecate and deposit a parasite called T. cruzi onto the skin. When the bite begins to itch and people scratch it, the parasite then gets into the person’s bloodstream. 

Infected people can experience common symptoms including fever, fatigue, body aches, headache, loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting. However, one of the key signs of the disease is particularly severe swelling of the eyelid, per UCLA Health.

“[Severe eyelid swelling is] almost a hallmark of acute Chagas infection,” said Shaun Yang, PhD, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Those who are infected could also risk getting more chronic symptoms, which often affect a person’s cardiovascular system. Between 20% and 30% of people who contract Chagas disease could develop serious heart or digestive problems, risk getting an enlarged heart, colon or esophagus, or risk heart failure or cardiac arrest, per the CDC. 

The CDC recommended in its report that Chagas disease be classified as “endemic” in the U.S. The agency defines “endemic” as having a “constant presence and/or usual prevalence in a population within a specific geographic area.”

Melinda

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18 thoughts on “Deadly ‘Kissing Bug’ Disease Chagas Has Spread in the U.S. — Here’s Which States Are Affected”

  1. Pingback: Helpful Information On Ridding Your Home Of The Kissing Bug

  4. Egads! I’d never heard of this before. I wonder if normal insect repellents work to keep the bug away? One more thing in a long list of insect borne disease we need to be wary of. Thanks for the heads up, M.

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    2. How are you and Tiger Mom? Didn’t you have medical treatments in the past several months? Next week will be a month since my shoulder replacement surgery, it sucks! But it also means no pain in the future. I know you have several health issues, are they holding you down? You have faced the good, bad and ugly in your life, in the military and yet I always see you as hard ass in a good way, inspiring me and teaching me. I’m blessed to have you in my life and the memories of the fun times on Survivors stay with me. You’re a good man, a stand up man and my respect for you grows daily knowing your commitment to Tiger Mom. Did all that give you whiplash? HAHA. Big hugs.

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      1. LOL 😆 NO whiplash, but thank you for the warm words and hug. Hugs are magical cures for everything. The last six months were tough for me and Tiger Mom. Healthwise, I have once again fought my way back to a reasonable existence. I’ve regained my strength. I can bench press 200 pounds 45 reps where before I couldn’t manage it at all. I’m riding my bike, canoeing, and my first love hiking. The difference is I do it for the pure joy and exercise. I don’t need to break any records and it’s okay if I finish last. The doctors aren’t sure I’m human but they can’t find any strange off world DNA or biomechanical parts attached. I tell them when you are silly and loud, you have to be tough so you can take the beatings. Tiger Mom is doing well. She is as healthy as a 30 year old female athlete but that brain is an 8 year old prone to tantrums. I’m trying to recalibrate my attitude to rejoice in tantrums and illogical activities. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Make sure you follow the doctor’s orders on that shoulder because you want it to work like brand new after you heal. Big hugs back atcha M 🤗

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    3. I’m going to write a post to introduce your library, your shared stories with ???, I forget her name are great. They are not a genre I read but all of your stories have held my attention, fillled my imagination and I enjoyed them. Several have made me look inside, I really like those. One that comes to mind is one you wrote a long time ago about a mermaid. It also had a touch of erotica and several if not all have a touch of. Is that cool with you, I don’t know if it will generate traffic of not but I don’t want to create more work for you. Is there a way I can access your stories from years ago, I don’t remember names. I have many writers that follow me and no doubt they would enjoy reading your stories. Hugs.

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      1. There isn’t much on the library now, but I have lots of the old stories I’m polishing including the Mermaid Story. Holly Rene Hunter of House of Heart is who I cowrite with. She is an amazing writer and poet and we have a lot of fun writing about the characters David and Renate and their adventures. We’ve written a full novel on their travel adventures always experiencing mystical events and growing their relationship. The stories on my website are all that I have online for the moment but am working on all of the past stories to bring them up to a tiny bit more professional instead of stream of consciousness. Ultimately, I’ll put them all on the library page for free reading and download.

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