Government officials are warning people across the United States about a parasite known as the “kissing bug,” which can transmit the potentially deadly Chagas disease.
Although the kissing bug is typically found in the southern region of the United States, as well as in Central and South America and Mexico, it has been sighted in regions in the north, such as Pennsylvania, according to reports.
Last July, a young girl in Delaware was bitten on the face by a kissing bug while watching television in her bedroom, according to the CDC.
Although she didn’t catch Chagas disease, officials from the Delaware Division of Public Health and the Delaware Department of Agriculture confirmed she was bitten by the bug.
Not everyone bitten by the bug is infected with Chagas disease, as the parasite, which usually lives in the bug’s intestine and feces, needs to enter the body.
Meanwhile, around 300,000 in the United States are estimated to be infected with the disease, according to the CDC.
It is thought that the potentially fatal disease could be spreading to previously uninfected regions due to migration from Latin America, or travel to and from the region, the WHO states.
People can also get the parasite by eating meat from an infected animal or having a blood transfusion or organ transplant from an infected person.
However, those infected can live for years without knowing they have Chagas. And around 30 percent of people infected with the disease can develop serious heart disease.
“We were walking and she said, ‘Karen, get that bug off of me,’” Hudgins told the outlet.
“I saw the one that flew away and I saw the one that we googled and it was no doubt,” she said.
She explained how Wooten became pale and blue in color, complained of difficulty breathing, and collapsed 10 minutes later.
“The last thing she said was ‘911,’” she told the Danville Register & Bee. “She started welling up and turning blue, her lips, arms, everything.”
Wooten sadly passed away the following morning, and doctors told her family her death was caused by an allergic reaction to an insect bite.
The woman’s son, Mark Wooten, said her death was “very unexpected.”
Symptoms can include swelling, itching, severe redness, hives, welts, and in some cases, anaphylactic shock, reported Fox News.
Kissing bugs are typically found either indoors, in cracks and holes, beneath porches and rocky structures, under cement, rocks, brush piles or bark, in outdoor dog houses, or other animal burrows, according to the CDC.
It advises people who think they may have found the bug to place the bug inside a container, and either freeze it or fill it with rubbing alcohol to bring for identification at a health department or university laboratory.
