{"id":10249,"date":"2025-09-10T12:32:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=10249"},"modified":"2025-09-10T12:32:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:32:41","slug":"kissing-bug-disease-is-now-endemic-in-the-u-s-researchers-say-what-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/09\/10\/kissing-bug-disease-is-now-endemic-in-the-u-s-researchers-say-what-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Kissing bug\u2019 disease is now endemic in the U.S., researchers say. What is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2025\/09\/09\/kissing-bug-disease-chagas-endemic\/\">Washington Post<\/a> The U.S. is seeing a rise in Chagas disease, a life-threatening illness transmitted through\u00a0\u201ckissing bugs\u201d known to bite human faces. Pets can be carriers. \u201cKissing bug\u201d disease, also known as Chagas disease, is now considered an endemic illness in the United States, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/wwwnc.cdc.gov\/eid\/article\/31\/9\/24-1700_article#r5\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"research, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">research<\/a>&nbsp;in an infectious-disease journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A disease&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/reproductive-health\/glossary\/index.html#:~:text=E,a%20particular%20period%20of%20time.\">is usually considered endemic<\/a>&nbsp;when it is constantly present within a specific area or population. Worldwide, more than 100 million people are considered at risk of being infected with Chagas disease, according to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/chagas-disease-(american-trypanosomiasis)#:~:text=development%20of%20information%2C%20education%20and,up%2C%20and%20notification%20of%20cases.\">World Health Organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"B5C65ONSBZDSXOX4FT6ED5N6HA\">What\u2019s \u2018kissing bug\u2019 disease?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Chagas disease is causedby the parasite&nbsp;<em>Trypanosoma cruzi<\/em>, which is found in the feces of the triatomine bug \u2014 commonly known as the \u201ckissing bug\u201d because it&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/chagas-disease\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20356212\">often bites people\u2019s faces<\/a>. The insects become infected when they feed on the blood of hosts carrying the parasite.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington Post The U.S. is seeing a rise in Chagas disease, a life-threatening illness transmitted through\u00a0\u201ckissing bugs\u201d known to bite human faces. Pets can be carriers. \u201cKissing bug\u201d disease, also known as Chagas disease, is now considered an endemic illness in the United States, according to&nbsp;research&nbsp;in an infectious-disease journal published by the Centers for Disease [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chagas","category-emerging-infectious-diseases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/chagas.avif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10251,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249\/revisions\/10251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}