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Texas health officials say 'kissing bugs' have infected at least 12 people with a ... Kissing bugs and the parasite they carry are usually only found in the tropics. ... Chagas disease can end in ...
Chagas disease is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite T. cruzi, which is typically introduced into humans through the bite of triatomine bugs, also called "kissing bugs". [4] When the insect defecates at the bite site, motile T. cruzi forms called trypomastigotes enter the bloodstream and invade various host cells. [5]
This is a very relevant disease in the Western Hemisphere because there are about 56,000 new incidents of Chagas Disease every year and about 12,000 deaths annually caused by this disease. [2] All blood-feeding arthropods in the genus Triatoma are vectors of T. cruzi , so these numbers are not caused by T. gerstaeckeri alone. [ 2 ]
Only 7 autochthonous human cases of Chagas disease have been reported in the U.S. from 1955-2006, which is considerably lower than the rates in Central and South America. [9] Fewer locally-acquired human Chagas disease cases in the U.S. is presumably due to better awareness and better economic conditions keeping the vectors outside the home.
Doctors, researchers, and patient advocates say the U.S. could be doing far more to combat Chagas, which causes serious heart disease in an estimated 30% of infected people and can also lead to ...
Chagas disease, caused by a parasite, affects people primarily in rural Latin America. But an estimated 300,000 people in the U.S. have it and many are unaware.
Even so, at one location in Louisiana, 40% of Triatoma sanguisuga were found to contain the pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi, and 38% of these had fed on humans. In neighboring Texas, though, human blood has rarely been detected in any species of Triatoma. [5] In the United States, documented vectorborne cases of Chagas disease are rare.
The disease has spread to the U.S. in the last 40 years, says the American Heart Association, but many doctors are unfamiliar with how to diagnose and treat it.