According to Positive Med, although the well-known pests such as mice, cockroaches, etc. are dangerous and disgusting in their own way, there are a lot of non-native pests which can be exceptionally damaging to our health.
One such bug is the so-called kissing bug which is known to transfer allergic reactions in people or illness. Do you know what type of bug this actually is? It is called the kissing bug. Make sure you continue reading the article if you want to learn more…
What are Kissing Bugs?
Also known as the assassin bug, this bug is common in southern countries such as Mexico and South and Central America. They can be found both outdoors and indoors and outside and they usually live in places such as woodpiles, outdoor dog kennels, underneath porches, and in different cracks and holes in buildings.
They are most active at night whereas they tend to hide during the day. They tend to stay near blood hosts such as birds, mammals, humans, birds, and reptiles. In properly-sealed homes, the chance for kissing bugs is much smaller because they usually appear in easily and open-types of homes.
Why You Need to Minimize the Chances for Kissing Bugs?
These bugs, as explained on Positive Med, carry a parasite known as Trypanosoma cruzi which is known to cause Chagas disease. This disease attacks the cardiovascular and digestive system and it comes in two phases, i.e. the acute one or a phase manifested by symptoms such as rashes, fever, sores, diarrhea, vomiting, and swollen eyes.
Even though this phase is not harmful for healthy adults, this is not necessarily the case with children or individuals with a weak metabolism. In healthy individuals, the signs of the acute phase go away after some time and the parasite goes dormant in the body for years.
The second phase, also known as the chronic phase, is when the heart and digestive system is being targeted and the parasite can trigger heart, intestine, and esophagus enlargement and an enlarged heart may lead to heart failure or worsen the heartbeat, which may further cause a heart attack.
How Do They Transfer the Illness?
The kissing bug acquires blood through the thin skin part around our mouths but it is not the bite which transfers the parasite, it is the feces. Hence, when a bug bites an animal or a person with a T. cruzi infection, the bug becomes positive and the parasite is transferred through the infected droppings of the bug.
As it feeds on people or animals, the bug leaves behind feces on the skin and they further penetrate the individual’s body through their mouth or eyes.
What about Treatment?
In the acute phase, as noted on Positive Med, the illness is easily treated. The doctor usually runs a blood test to find out if they are positive to the parasite. If yes, the patient is required to undergo specific heart tests to see if the heart has maybe been influenced. The two drugs which treat it are known to destroy the parasite completely, but, they need to be taken as soon as possible in order to be hundred percent effective. Otherwise, the longer the illness is present, the smaller the effectiveness of the medications.
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