{"id":1037,"date":"2023-02-14T17:08:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T17:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2023-02-14T17:08:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T17:08:10","slug":"over-300000-americans-have-a-chronic-deadly-disease-caused-by-kissing-bugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/?p=1037","title":{"rendered":"Over 300000 Americans have a Chronic, Deadly Disease Caused by \u2018Kissing Bugs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every summer, health officials warn Americans to be on the lookout for disease-carrying pests such as mosquitoes and ticks. But few people are aware of the kissing bug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Triatomine bugs, commonly known as kissing bugs<\/a>, are vectors for a dangerous parasite that can cause a debilitating illness in humans called Chagas disease. If left untreated, the infectious disease can become lifelong and painful, and in some cases lead to death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key is early treatment, but many Americans living with the disease are unaware they have it,\u00a0and a recent study suggests doctors are underdiagnosing it. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a neglected disease,\u201d said Melissa Nolan, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina and lead author of the study published this week in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a peer-reviewed journal by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But health experts say the disease is not only difficult to diagnose \u2013 sometimes requiring multiple tests \u2013 it may require CDC intervention to treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChagas is not something that most doctors think about in the U.S.,\u201d said Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital. Doctors are taught, \u201cwhen you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras. Chagas is a zebra.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Chagas disease and how can you get it from a kissing bug?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chagas disease is caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi. The kissing bug can pick up this parasite when feeding on the blood of an infected animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kissing bugs are commonly found in South and Central America, and Mexico, but doctors are starting to count cases in states like Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah and California, according to a Texas A&M University program studying Chagas disease.  <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rate of kissing bugs infected by the parasite is abnormally high compared with other insects that carry disease, said Gabriel Hamer, associate professor in the department of entomology at Texas A&M. Up to 60% of kissing bugs carry\u00a0the parasite that causes Chagas, compared with only 0.1% of mosquitos that carry\u00a0dengue, an infectious disease\u00a0occurring in tropical areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although more than half of kissing bugs carry the disease-causing parasite, Hamer said it\u2019s still difficult for a person to be infected. Unlike mosquitoes or ticks, the parasite isn\u2019t transmitted through saliva or blood during feeding. Instead, it\u2019s transmitted through the bug\u2019s feces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kissing bug usually feeds around a person\u2019s face when the person is sleeping, which is how the insect got its name. After feeding, the bug defecates near the wound. People normally become infected when they rub that fecal matter into the wound or near the eye.\"a

\u201cIt\u2019s a very inefficient form of transmission for humans,\u201d Hamer said. \u201cThere\u2019s been studies that suggest that if you have a positive kissing bug feeding on a human, it could take up to 2,000 feeding events for that human to become positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If kissing bugs establish a colony in the house, they feed on a person multiple times, increasing the chance of transmitting the parasite, he said. Kissing bugs are most active when they venture out in search of a meal or a mate, which can start start as early as April and end as late as October, depending the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two phases of Chagas disease: acute and chronic. During the acute phase, a person may have no symptoms or mild ones, such as fever, fatigue, body aches, headache, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting, according to the CDC.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A swollen eyelid, known as Roma\u00f1a\u2019s sign, may also be a sign of acute Chagas. This typically occurs when the parasite infects the eyelid after rubbing bug feces into the eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chronic Chagas can last for life. In those cases, the parasite invades the heart tissues, causing an enlarged heart, heart failure, an altered heart rate or cardiac arrest. It also can cause gastrointestinal complications including an enlarged esophagus or colon and lead to difficulties with GI functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CDC estimates<\/a> more than 300,000 people in the U.S. live with Chagas disease. One in 3 people develop the chronic stage of the disease, which can lead to heart attack, stroke or sudden death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors may be underdiagnosing Chagas disease<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Patients can recover with early detection and treatment, but if left untreated, the infection can become a lifelong, painful and deadly disease. The problem is, most people infected in the U.S. don\u2019t know they have Chagas disease, and this week\u2019s study suggests doctors may be partly to blame for missing diagnoses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From August 2015 to July 2017, researchers looked at 97 patients with a heart condition called nonischemic cardiomyopathy in a Houston hospital. All came from a country or lived in an area where kissing bugs are found, putting them at risk for Chagas disease, yet doctors never tested them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, 7% of those patients seeking treatment for heart failure management tested positive for the Chagas disease parasite by the CDC, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClinicians should be better informed about Chagas as a potential underlying factor \u2013 even in the absence of non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, which occurs years even decades after infection,\u201d said Kacey Ernst, professor and program director of epidemiology at the University of Arizona\u2019s College of Public Health, who is unaffiliated with the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 85% of patients came from South and Central America, where the CDC estimates<\/a> as many as 8 million people may have Chagas disease. Nolan, the study author, said doctors should have \u201cautomatically been thinking of Chagas disease in these patients\u201d when they arrived to the hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhysicians aren\u2019t even thinking about (Chagas) with someone who\u2019s from the classic endemic environment,\u201d she said, \u201cso how are they going to think about people who are born and raised in the United States?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ernst said it\u2019s important for patients to be aware of the risk factors associated with Chagas disease and advocate for their own screening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that only two of the positive cases (in the study) had heard of Chagas and only one understood the transmission indicates that patients themselves may not have enough knowledge about the risk to advocate screening,\u201d she said. \u201cEmpowering both individuals and clinicians with knowledge is important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why it may be difficult to diagnose and treat Chagas disease<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s important to consider and screen for Chagas disease, health experts say diagnosing and treating a patient is easier said than done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the acute phase, which lasts eight to 10 weeks after infection, a diagnosis of Chagas disease can be made by looking for parasites in a blood smear under a microscope. The CDC accepts and tests samples to help confirm results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many patients who go to the hospital are past the acute stage and may already have entered the chronic stage. At this point, doctors test for antibodies. Long, of Houston Methodist, <\/strong>says such testing can be unreliable, producing false positives or false negatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA drawback of serological tests is that you\u2019re looking for antibodies that react against the parasite, but you may have antibodies that aren\u2019t due to the infection but still react with the test \u2013 giving you a false positive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every test has a false positive rate, he said. If doctors tested every patient with symptoms of acute Chagas, they would spend more work verifying those false positives than finding an actual diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long says doctors may have to order multiple tests to the confirm a diagnosis, and in some instances, send results to the CDC for confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benznidazole was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2017<\/a> as the first drug to treat Chagas disease. It was approved for use in children 2 to 12 years of age, but Long says doctors may use it off-label for adult patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, nifurtimox, under the brand name Lampit, was the second drug approved by the FDA for treatment of Chagas disease in <\/a>patients under 18 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the two drugs were approved after the recent study was conducted, Long said it may have been harder for doctors to prescribe them without CDC intervention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors should inquire about a patient\u2019s history before screening and testing for Chagas disease, health experts say. Has the person lived in South or Central America, or Mexico? Did they live in housing conditions where a kissing bug is most likely to appear? Have any of their family members had Chagas disease?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for doctors to think about Chagas disease in the right patients,\u201d Long said. \u201cIt is something that doctors in America need to be thinking about\u201d before cardiac symptoms appear and become severe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could be doing the patient a huge service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# 1 \u2013 North Cascades National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

625.35 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2 \u2013 Denali National Park & Preserve<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

100.50 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3 \u2013 Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

68.52 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#4 \u2013 Big Thicket National Preserve<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

66.92 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#5 \u2013 Little River Canyon National Preserve<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

53.13 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#6 \u2013 New River Gorge National River<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

44.73 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#7 \u2013 Virgin Islands National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

39.94 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#8 \u2013 Mount Rainier National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

37.72 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#9 \u2013 Redwood National and State Parks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

36.60 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#10 \u2013 Big Bend National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

36.37 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#11 \u2013 Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

33.22 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#12 \u2013 Channel Islands National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

31.53 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#13 \u2013 Glen Canyon National Recreation Area<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

29.86 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#14 \u2013 Yosemite National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

28.01 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#15 \u2013 Death Valley National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

26.57 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#16 \u2013 Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

26.09 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#17 \u2013 Canyonlands National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

24.43 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#18 \u2013 Colorado National Monument<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

23.69 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#19 \u2013 Lake Mead National Recreation Area<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

23.41 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#20 \u2013 Biscayne National Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

23.21 deaths per 10 million visits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every summer, health officials warn Americans to be on the lookout for disease-carrying pests such as mosquitoes and ticks. But few people are aware of the kissing bug. Triatomine bugs, commonly known as kissing bugs, are vectors for a dangerous parasite that can cause a debilitating illness in humans called Chagas disease. If left untreated, the infectious disease can become lifelong and painful, and in some cases lead to death.  The key is early treatment, but many Americans living with the disease are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthnews.zone\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}