Kissing bugs infected with the Chagas parasite have been found in 12 Florida counties, with many feeding on humans indoors—raising alarm over growing exposure to the often-silent, heart-damaging disease.
United States: According to researchers in Florida, kissing bugs carrying the parasite that causes Chagas disease, a potentially fatal tropical disorder, have taken root in the state.
This Chagas disease is not initially seen in the United States and may cause either a temporary sickness or have no symptoms for a number of years.
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Without treatment, it may ensure the development of a chronic problem that destroys the heart, brain, and other organs.
During this period, 2013-2023, scientists at the University of Florida (UF) and Texas A&M University gathered over 300 kissing bugs (triatomines) in 23 Florida counties, including a third of them in people’s homes, as cidrap.umn.edu reported.
A new 10-year study led by @NormanBeattyMD suggests #Florida has all the ingredients for local #Chagas disease transmission, a latent but life-threatening disease that can cause organ failure.
— Emerging Pathogens Institute (@UF_EPI) July 7, 2025
Visit our website to dive into the collaborative research: https://t.co/igWIT3Re4m. pic.twitter.com/2sxaXhOUam
The stomach contents of the bugs were analyzed so as to identify the origin of the last meal that the bugs had and whether they had the parasite (TRypanosoma cruzi) that causes the Chagas disease.
Kissing bugs infected by parasites were found in 12 out of 23 counties and about 30 percent of them were found positive for T cruzi.
A majority of the bugs discovered in the house had fed on humans, and those that crept outside were primarily rich in the blood of other mammals and, to a smaller amount, unforeseen sources like amphibians, reptiles, and cockroaches.
Adult kissing bugs- these probably got their name as they are the ones that tend to bite a person’s face- are about 0.5 to 1 inch long.
They usually occupy wood heaps and bite people or dogs, or wild animals to suck their blood at night, inundating their feces with parasites.
The parasites can be transmitted to the body of the victim either via the mouth or the eyes, a cut, or an actual insect bite.
There are also possibilities to be transmitted via infected blood of donors or mothers to young kids or infected uncooked food.
The range of the bugs is broad, and they inhabit all of North, Central, and South America, including 23 predominantly southern, coast-to-coast states.
The researchers have seen the bugs hide in the homes of people as their natural habitat is destroyed by the development of the land, they said.
According to the senior author Samantha Wisely, PhD, of UF, “We’re building into the Trypanosoma cruzi habitat, and so I think it increases the likelihood of people and companion animals becoming infected,” cidrap.umn.edu reported.