Blood-Sucking ‘Kissing Bug’ Moving Closer to New York
This time of year in the Hudson Valley we have to worry about ticks on us and of course our pets. Now we have a whole new breed of insects to work about. According to WABC, the kissing bug, or Triatoma sanguisuga, have been discovered and identified in the nearby state of Delaware. The Triatoma sanguisuga is a blood-sucking insect that stays alive by feeding on animals and humans. It's mostly known to bite the faces of humans to feed,
The Center for Disease Control was contacted back in July of 2018 by a family from Kent County in Delaware that said that an insect had bitten their child's face while the child was watching television and they wanted to have the insect tested.
After testing the insect, the CDC confirmed this month that it was the kissing bug and it is the first time the bug has ever been discovered in the state of Delaware.
The girl that was bit didn't get sick from the bite, but the CDC is warning that insect bites like these can carry the deadly Chagas disease, which can cause serious heart and gastrointestinal issues.
Some of the symptoms of the disease include fever, fatigue, body aches, headache, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting and even more serious, enlarged heart, heart failure, altered heart rate or rhythm and cardiac arrest.
If you do get a bug bite that you have a hard time identifying, the CDC recommends consulting your doctor as soon as possible.