With climate change, US could face risk from Chagas disease
Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 14:30
in Health & Medicine
People in the US may be at higher risk for Chagas disease than previously understood. A new study finds that 38 percent of kissing bugs collected in Arizona and California contained human blood and that more than 50 percent of the bugs also carried the parasite that causes this life-threatening disease. This upends the view that US kissing bug species don't regularly feed on people and suggests that Chagas could spread, driven north by climate change.