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Are there kissing bugs in south carolina – are there kissing bugs in south carolina
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Triatomine bugs, aka “kissing bugs” because they bite people near the mouth and suck their blood while defecating a parasite that can cause. Columbia, SC (WOLO) — The centers for disease control and prevention says a deadly insect known as the Kissing Bug has made its way to South.
– Bite From Parasitic Bug Spotted In South Carolina Can Be Deadly
S alszerger.
Are there kissing bugs in south carolina – are there kissing bugs in south carolina.Summer Bugs & Pests in South Carolina
What exactly are kissing bugs? These bugs are similar to ticks, mosquitoes, and bed bugs in that they feed on human blood. They attach themselves to people and bite in order to feed. As with bed bugs, this typically occurs when people are asleep in their bed.
These pests have a black or light brown appearance in general, although some species have reddish or yellowish markings on them. They also have a cone-shaped head. The South Carolina kissing bug and other kissing bug species tend to bite people on their face when they feed, rather than on the arms or other areas as bed bugs do.
Kissing bugs come out at night after hiding all day in mattresses, bed linens or other hiding places. These pests inject you with an anesthetizing agent that stops you from feeling their bites when they occur.
What kinds of problems do kissing bugs cause? These bugs can cause skin irritation, such as redness or itchiness, in people who are allergic or sensitive to their bites. However, kissing bugs have been found to carry a parasite that causes Chagas disease , which can be fatal in some individuals.
During the early phase, you might have a fever, body aches, a rash, fatigue, headaches and other milder symptoms. Without treatment, this disease can enter an advanced stage that can lead to heart failure, blood clots, an enlarged heart or other organs, and sudden cardiac arrest. How do these pests manage to get inside homes? They can enter anywhere that offers them a small opening, such as a torn screen. They might also fly in through unscreened, open windows. Kissing bugs typically live outdoors in hollow trees that other animals have inhabited, such as rats or raccoons.
The kissing bug can pick up this parasite when feeding on the blood of an infected animal. After feeding, the bug defecates near the wound. People normally become infected when they rub that fecal matter into the wound or near the eye. If kissing bugs establish a colony in the house, they feed on a person multiple times, increasing the chance of transmitting the parasite, he said.
Kissing bugs are most active when they venture out in search of a meal or a mate, which can start start as early as April and end as late as October, depending the region. There are two phases of Chagas disease: acute and chronic. During the acute phase, a person may have no symptoms or mild ones, such as fever, fatigue, body aches, headache, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting, according to the CDC.
This typically occurs when the parasite infects the eyelid after rubbing bug feces into the eye. Chronic Chagas can last for life. In those cases, the parasite invades the heart tissues, causing an enlarged heart, heart failure, an altered heart rate or cardiac arrest.
It also can cause gastrointestinal complications including an enlarged esophagus or colon and lead to difficulties with GI functions. The CDC estimates more than , people in the U. One in 3 people develop the chronic stage of the disease, which can lead to heart attack, stroke or sudden death.
Patients can recover with early detection and treatment, but if left untreated, the infection can become a lifelong, painful and deadly disease. The problem is, most people infected in the U. From August to July , researchers looked at 97 patients with a heart condition called nonischemic cardiomyopathy in a Houston hospital.
All came from a country or lived in an area where kissing bugs are found, putting them at risk for Chagas disease, yet doctors never tested them.
During the acute phase, which lasts eight to 10 weeks after infection, a diagnosis of Chagas disease can be made by looking for parasites in a blood smear under a microscope. The CDC accepts and tests samples to help confirm results. However, many patients who go to the hospital are past the acute stage and may already have entered the chronic stage. At this point, doctors test for antibodies. Long, of Houston Methodist , says such testing can be unreliable, producing false positives or false negatives.
Every test has a false positive rate, he said. If doctors tested every patient with symptoms of acute Chagas, they would spend more work verifying those false positives than finding an actual diagnosis. Mosquitos and ticks and wasps, oh my!