Kills 10 thousand people a year: deadly beetle spotted in the USA

While health experts often warn of mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects, the deadly "Kissing beetle", "affectionate killer" or the triatomine bug, which kills 10 people a year worldwide—continues to be ignored in the United States. The publication told more about this insect New York Post.

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Obviously, even the infectious disease world is not immune to racism. Most often, Hispanic communities suffer from this insect.

“The way medical schools, medical institutions and public health authorities are neglecting this disease is truly shocking,” said Daisy Hernandez, author of “The Kissing Bug: The True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease.”

The author first encountered this scourge when her aunt died of complications from Chagas disease, a parasite spread by a bed bug. Most deaths are caused by the Chagas parasite, which attacks the human heart and digestive system.

In light of this terrible event, Hernandez set herself the task of covering all aspects of the disease.

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The disease, first discovered in 1909 by Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas, has a difficult history in the United States. The Kissing Beetle details a grisly 1940s experiment in which a Texas researcher purposefully planted beetles on a young black psychiatric patient to study the effects of Chagas.

Today, the disease affects 300 people in the United States, mostly immigrants from Latin America in Texas, California and Florida. Unfortunately, since there is no national surveillance program, it is unclear where people are most affected by Chagas disease in this country.

“Chagas disease is a disease of injustice,” laments Dr. Norman Beatty, a professor of medicine at the University of Florida who has been studying the disease since 2015.

According to Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital, parasitic diseases are not a priority for the medical community. He explained that doctors are taught: “When you hear hooves, think about horses, not zebras,” he said. “Chagas is a zebra.”

This apparent lack of attention—and data—is especially problematic given the insidious nature of the disease, which can be passed from person to person through everything from organ donation to blood transfusions. Mothers can even infect their babies with Chagas during pregnancy.

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In addition, many victims are unaware that they have contracted Chagas as they have no symptoms. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes and other “flu-like symptoms, which, Beatty says, go away quickly without indicating that the parasite is still spreading in the body.

When it finally appears, the consequences are usually disastrous: 20 to 30% of patients experience cardiac and gastrointestinal complications.

Antiparasitic drugs can help prevent spread, but only if the infection is detected early.

This can be challenging given the lack of access to health care in many Latino immigrant communities—not to mention that Latinos have the highest uninsured rate of any racial or ethnic group, which could be disastrous for low-income people suffering from Chagas .

Hernandez cites the case of 40-year-old Carlos, whose heart disease, caused by Chagas, prevented him from keeping his job. However, he was forced to keep working in order to pay his medical bills.

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“It's not just about gaining access to health care,” Hernandez explained. “It’s also an opportunity to take time off from work.”

Fortunately, attitudes towards this historically underestimated disease are beginning to change as Chagas expands into areas previously unaffected by the disease. Two years ago, a Delaware girl was first bitten by a beetle, indicating that the carrier of the pathogen is migrating further north. Meanwhile, the first case in Nebraska was reported this summer, according to a press release from California State University at Fullerton.

“There's a lot we can do, and that's why it's so important for us to screen for Chagas disease and connect patients with a doctor who knows how the disease works and what treatments and therapies are available,” Beatty said.

Infectious disease researchers from California also recently discovered a revolutionary new mechanism that could be used as a target for potential drug development.

“We don’t have vaccines or good drugs, so developing new drugs is a priority,” added Veronica Jimenez, assistant professor of biological sciences.

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