Tampa Bay Times: Kissing bugs and Chagas disease are silent threats in Florida | Column
The upcoming “kissing bug season” in May alerts Floridians to a major public health concern. It’s time to take serious precautions against a silent killer in our state. While locals may be preoccupied with the mosquito swarms that unfailingly arrive every summer, Chagas disease — a lethal and little-known parasitic infection — is plaguing the panhandle and the northern and central regions of Florida.
Though many people have never heard of the disease, an estimated 300,000 Americans may unknowingly carry its causative agent, Trypanosoma cruzi. For years, Chagas was considered a problem only in Latin America. But University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute researchers have confirmed the opposite: the insect is here in Florida and harbors the parasite, which is transmitted to other hosts.
Researchers have found that, when Florida kissing bugs (which are not the same thing as “love bugs”) invade people’s homes, nearly 30% of the insects carry the T. cruzi parasite and almost 25% of the bugs feed on human blood. Among Florida wildlife, the opossum and raccoon are major hosts. An infected mother opossum can likely transmit the parasite to its fetus — another unknown route of transmission seen in humans.
It can take nearly decades for infected individuals to show symptoms of the disease, but some permanent effects are often present by the time people learn about their infection. Across the country, as little as 1% of infected people have been treated, and up to 30% of cases can progress to severe heart disease, leading to heart failure, arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death. Much like HIV, Chagas is an infectious disease that lays silent in the body for years but eventually progresses into chronic — and ultimately fatal — stages.