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Kissing Bugs: How You Can Get Heart Disease From A Bite

While kissing may tug at your heart, the kissing bug can really screw up your heart. That's because triatomines, the more scientific and less cuddly name for the blood-sucking kissing bug, can carry the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Want to know how this %&$% bug can get the parasite into your body? The name kissing bug comes from the bug's tendency to bite you near your mouth or your eyes. (By the way, don't kiss people on the eyes). The bug can bite you, suck your blood, and then poop into or close to the wound. That's right. This bug poops on your face. And that poop may carry the T. cruzi parasite. Call me old fashioned, but any "kiss" that ends up with being pooped on the face is not good.

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 Five Things to Know about Kissing Bugs and Chagas Disease

Kissing is an activity that can usually be characterized as sweet to passionate. But the "kissing bug" is anything but romantic: The insect sucks blood and can spread a parasite that causes Chagas disease. Both terms (kissing bug and Chagas disease) are probably unfamiliar to most Americans, but in light of a recent rash of the disease in Texas, they probably shouldn’t be.

 No, Kissing Bugs Are Not a New Scourge

If social media is any indication, many people are suddenly very concerned about dying from the bite of “kissing bugs.” Don’t be. The bugs are not any more likely to kill you than they have been for the last couple of centuries. Despite news reports this week advertising the sudden presence of the bugs in various Southern states, triatomines, as the insects are formally known, have lived in the United States since at least the 19th century.

Articles of Interest

'The Kissing Bug' Challenges Which Diseases Matter — And Why

Hernández's book The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease weaves together family memoir and investigative journalism to come to terms with the disease that ultimately killed her aunt. Through piecing together her own family's story, the history of Chagas, and the stories of other patients' illnesses, Hernández raises damning questions about which infectious diseases get attention and whom we believe to be deserving of care.

Conenose (Kissing) Bugs and Chagas Disease

Although very rare in California, conenose bugs can spread the parasite (called Trypanasoma cruzi) that causes Chagas disease. This disease can affect certain muscles in the body and cause swelling or other problems in specific organs. You cannot get Chagas disease from the bite of a conenose bug. The parasite that causes Chagas disease only comes from the feces of an infected conenose bug. Some types of conenose bugs defecate (or poop) right after they bite and suck blood. If a person scratches or rubs fresh conenose bug feces into the bite area, or into their eyes, nose, or mouth, they can become infected with the parasite that causes Chagas disease.

A New Strategy to Undermine Big Pharma’s Price Gouging Actually Worked

A little-known disease called Chagas is much more prevalent than Zika. Here’s how advocates fought an uphill battle, and won. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration announced its approval of the drug benznidazole, which is used to treat a parasitic disease that afflicts about 300,000 Americans and that, left untreated, can lead to heart failure. It sounds like a routine case of government agencies doing routine work—a relief during the Trump administration. For once, there’s good news.

All About Kissing Bugs and Chagas Disease

Kissing bug. With such an innocuous name, it may seem as if this bug should be the official mascot of Valentine’s Day. However, the insect - named for its habit of biting humans on and around the lips - is a pest and is in no way a symbol of Cupid’s holiday. The insect’s feces can contain the protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi which causes Chagas disease. Contact with infected feces, through an open wound, or through the eyes or mouth, can result in disease transmission. For most people who are bitten by a kissing bug, the contact is not a memorable one.

Are Kissing Bugs a Danger in Your Home?

Kissing bugs can be identified by their distinctive appearance. They are typically 0.5 to 1 inch long, with a flattened, oval-shaped body that is dark brown or black. What sets them apart are the orange or red stripes along the edge of their bodies. They have a long, cone-shaped head and a beak that they use to pierce the skin of mammals, including humans, to feed on their blood.

Bed Bugs, Kissing Bugs Linked to Deadly Chagas Disease in U.S.

Scientists thought Americans were safe in their sturdier houses. Now some are not so sure. Chagas-infected kissing bugs do enter at least some southern U.S. dwellings and bite people living there, recent studies suggest. And a new study published two weeks ago raises the specter of Chagas from another more familiar insect pest: bed bugs, found all over the country. Biting bed bugs have been found to transmit the parasite between mice.

Chagas Disease: Are Kissing Bugs the Only Culprit?

Chagas disease, first described by Carlos Chagas in 1909, is caused by a single-celled parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi). Throughout history, the main mechanism of transmission has been via contact with the feces of an insect infected with the parasite. This insect, known as the “kissing bug” in English, is popularly known as “barbeiro,” “chupão,” or “chupança” in Brazil. The “kissing bugs” are not born with the parasite in their intestine; rather, they acquire it by feeding on the blood of infected mammals. (This disease only affects mammals).

How we discovered that deadly ‘vampire’ kissing bugs love cherry tomatoes, too

Kissing bugs are one of nature’s little vampires. They feed on human blood at night – and spread a nasty infection when they do so. They are known as “kissing bugs” because of their habit of biting the faces of their victims. The bite is painless but the bug may leave parasites on the victim’s skin. When the victim wakes up, they can become infected if they scratch the site of the bite. The infection, Chagas disease, is associated with poverty and affects over 8m people across North and South America. The disease is spreading to other continents through human migration. People can also become infected after transfusion or organ transplantation from an infected donor. There are now thought to be more than 100,000 cases in Europe.

In the dark of night, a hunt for a deadly bug in the name of science

The hunt took place after dark, on a rickety homemade radio tower high above the post oak savanna. The hunter sat in a folding chair encrusted with vulture droppings, waiting for his quarry. He listened to the yipping of coyotes, the lowing of cows, the ghostly trilling of a nearby screech owl. The animal didn’t look like much: a blackish bug with orange markings on the back. Trapped between Hugh Brown’s fingers, it looked about as threatening as a butterfly in a net. Yet this insect — known as a kissing bug — is responsible for killing 12,000 people a year worldwide.

Kiss of Death: A Parasite Threatens Latin American Immigrants

Chagas has been a scourge of the developing world for decades—particularly in poor Latin American countries, where a bug called the vinchuca, sometimes known as the kissing bug (because it bites people on their faces while they sleep), transmits the disease. But it's increasingly becoming a U.S. health problem.

Kissing bugs aren't about summer lovin'. Their bite could be lethal

When "kissing" bugs give you a smooch (actually a blood-sucking bite that people sometimes don't even feel), their buss can mean much more than some summer lovin'. Despite the cute name, the bug that often bites people around their mouths is anything but lovable.

Kissing Bugs in the United States: Risk for Vector-Borne Disease in Humans

Eleven species of kissing bugs are found in the United States. Their home ranges may be expanding northward, perhaps as a consequence of climate change. At least eight of the species, perhaps all, are reported to harbor Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease. Because humans are encroaching on kissing bug habitat, there is concern for vector-transmitted Chagas disease in the United States. To date, documented autochthonous cases of Chagas in humans in the United States are rare.

Lessons of the Kissing Bug's Deadly Gift

This parasitic infection usually is transmitted through the bite of the kissing bug (also known as the reduviid bug and the triatomine bug). The insect lives in cracks and holes in poor housing, where it bites people, often on the face, while they sleep. Occasionally, Chagas' is transmitted through blood transfusions, organ transplants and from mother to child at birth.

Northern Virginia: 'Ground Zero' for Kissing Bug Disease

When Jenny Sanchez was pregnant, she asked her doctor in Virginia to test her for Chagas, also known as the “kissing bug disease.” She was worried about passing it onto her son and putting him at risk for heart failure one day. In Bolivia, where she was born and raised, expectant mothers were routinely screened for Chagas, but her American doctor had never heard of it.

The 1899 United States Kissing Bug Epidemic

Ten years before Carlos Chagas described Chagas disease (in 1909), the US experienced a multi-city hysteria caused by the routine, nightly bites of the “kissing bug” that resulted in numerous hospitalizations and even a few deaths.

This deadly 'kissing bug' has been mostly ignored. It shouldn't be, this author says.

Daisy Hernández’s deep dive into Chagas' disease, which killed her aunt, raises questions on why a disease that kills tens of thousands a year is not more of a focus.

What Is Chagas (aka the 'Kissing Bug') and Should You Be Worried?

If you're like us, when you saw the headlines about "the new AIDS" that can be transmitted by something called a "kissing bug," you probably thought, YIKES! What is this new disease? And can I get it from kissing? ...

What You Need to Know About Chagas Disease—the Illness Spread by Kissing Bugs

According to the CDC, kissing bugs become infected with T. cruzi when they suck on the blood of an animal that’s already infected with the parasite. The bugs tend to hide out in crevices in homes during the day and come out at night when they feed on sleeping people. Oh, and the reason they're called kissing bugs is because they tend to snack on your face in the middle of the night. Still with us? Cool, let's continue.

‘Kissing bug’ disease: Should you be worried?

Until recently it was considered a problem only in Mexico, Central America and South America. Over the past few years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen cases across half the United States, but in most cases the victims were believed to have been infected abroad.

‘The silent disease’: Chagas is a killer. Now carriers want their voices heard

The parasite-borne disease is classed as ‘neglected’ yet causes 12,000 deaths a year, mostly in Latin America. Can the world really wipe it out by 2030?

“Kissing Bugs”: Potential Disease Vectors and Cause of Anaphylaxis

Despite the potential for Chagas disease transmission, the major concern regarding kissing bugs in the United States is anaphylactic reactions to their bites resulting in frequent emergency department visits, especially in areas of endemicity in the Southwest.

Resources

Kissing Bug Project

There are several species of bugs that look like kissing bugs but are not, including the following...

Kissing Bugs & Chagas Disease

We are a team of scientists at Texas A&M University. Our kissing bug community science program started in 2012. Since then, almost 1,500 people have sent us over 7,000 kissing bugs for scientific research. About 55% of the kissing bugs are infected with the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes Chagas disease. We hope this website will help you learn about Chagas disease and kissing bugs.

The Kissing Bug

Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy Hernández believed that her aunt had become deathly ill from eating an apple. No one in her family, in either the United States or Colombia, spoke of infectious diseases. Even into her thirties, she only knew that her aunt had died of Chagas, a rare and devastating illness that affects the heart and digestive system. But as Hernández dug deeper, she discovered that Chagas?or the kissing bug disease?is more prevalent in the United States than the Zika virus.

StatPearls

Kissing bug bites and the subsequent development of Chagas disease is under-recognized and frequently go untreated. Chagas disease can be challenging to diagnose and chronic in nature leading to significant morbidity and mortality.

The Kissing Bug and Chagas Disease

"There are two major reasons we don't see more cases of locally-transmitted Chagas disease in the United States," said Kevin Harkins, an entomologist with the Army Public Health Center. "First, our local kissing bugs aren't great disease vectors, and second, most people live in tightly constructed housing that won't let in a tiny mosquito, much less a large insect like a kissing bug." The kissing bug species in the U.S. are less likely to spread Chagas, as they tend to defecate once they’ve crawled off of their prey. Chagas is more commonly spread in Mexico and Central and South America, where local kissing bug species defecate closer to where they eat.