It’s one of the most insidious diseases you’ve never heard of, but Chagas is here in California and 29 other states across the U.S.
It kills more people in Latin America than malaria each year, and researchers think roughly 300,000 people in the U.S. currently have it but are unaware.
That’s because the illness tends to lie dormant for years, only making itself known when its victim keels over via heart attack, stroke or death.
Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which lives in a bloodsucking insect called the kissing bug. There are roughly a dozen species of kissing bugs in the U.S. and four in California known to carry the parasite. Research has shown that in some places, such as Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, about a third of all kissing bugs harbor the Chagas parasite.