Report: Though It's Still Uncommon, We Should Consider Chagas Disease Endemic w/i The United States
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Dr Norman Beatty, who has studied the kissing bugs, said that like Valerie and Luna, most people in the US have not heard of Chagas, even though it is not just present south of the border but within the country. Beatty, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine, is part of a group of scientists that authored a new report arguing that the United States should treat Chagas as an endemic disease, meaning that there is a constant or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area.
They hope to increase public awareness of Chagas, which while rare, can cause serious health problems. “My hope is that with more awareness of Chagas, we can build a better infrastructure around helping others understand whether or not they are at risk of this disease” and cause people to think about it similarly to other vector-borne illnesses, like from mosquitoes and ticks, said Beatty. “We need to add kissing bugs to this list.”
Bugs spread the parasite through their droppings, which can infect humans if they enter the body through a cut or via the eyes or mouth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can cause symptoms such as fever, fatigue and eyelid swelling in the weeks or months after infection. Some people, like Luna, do not develop any symptoms – at least initially – but about 20 to 30% of people infected can develop chronic issues later in life such as an enlarged heart and heart failure, or an enlarged esophagus or colon, leading to trouble eating or going to the bathroom. About 8 million people, including 280,000 in the United States, have the disease, according to the CDC.
It is not a recent arrival to the US. The 1,200-year-old remains of a man buried in south Texas revealed that he had Chagas and an abnormally enlarged colon, according to a report in the Gastroenterology journal. More recently, human development in new areas has brought us “closer to the kissing bugs’ natural environment”, Beatty said. People in at least eight states have been infected with Chagas from local bugs, according to the new report, which was published in the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. But the fact that it has not been declared endemic to the United States has led to “low awareness and underreporting”, the report states.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/13/kissing-bug-chagas-disease
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