4 ms·

From the related articles: https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/kissing-bug-disease-is-here-to-stay-in-the-us-experts-say-heres-why-its-spreading/1816

by naet 1y ago

From the related articles: https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/kissing-bug-disease-is-here-to-stay-in-the-us-experts-say-heres-why-its-spreading/1816508 https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/kissing-bug-d... Chagas disease is the one that scares me, since it seems easy to contract and not know it. Rabies is definitely more lethal but hopefully you could recognize the exposure event and get treated.

southernplaces7 1y ago
Worth noting that many human cases of rabies infection involve bat bites, which (especially from vampire bats) can be hard to notice at all if they happened very suddenly or while you were asleep. The scarier thing is that once the virus is inside you, the arrival of symptoms can only mean that it's already too late for prophylaxis. I remember the case of a woman in California, a teacher, who picked up a stunned bat that had accidentally flown into her school room one day. While she carried it over to the window to release it, the bat bit her without her even noticing. Weeks later she was diagnosed with rabies and died soon after. Only after the diagnosis did anyone make the connection to the incident with the little bat. Just found a link, to confirm I'd remember the essential details right. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-teacher-dies-bitten-bat-classroom/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-teacher-dies-bitten-... Edit: As for chagas, it's scary but not something worth blowing too far out of proportion either. I live in a country where chagas is endemic and even here it's exceptionally rare outside of deeply rural areas with lots of poverty and extremely low quality housing. The housing is a key transmission factor actually, since the bug tends to infect people with the parasite while they sleep, and it more easily enters barely-together rural shacks than it does properly built houses and apartments.

by naet 1y ago

southernplaces7 1y ago

Worth noting that many human cases of rabies infection involve bat bites, which (especially from vampire bats) can be hard to notice at all if they happened very suddenly or while you were asleep. The scarier thing is that once the virus is inside you, the arrival of symptoms can only mean that it's already too late for prophylaxis. I remember the case of a woman in California, a teacher, who picked up a stunned bat that had accidentally flown into her school room one day. While she carried it over to the window to release it, the bat bit her without her even noticing. Weeks later she was diagnosed with rabies and died soon after. Only after the diagnosis did anyone make the connection to the incident with the little bat. Just found a link, to confirm I'd remember the essential details right. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-teacher-dies-bitten-bat-classroom/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-teacher-dies-bitten-... Edit: As for chagas, it's scary but not something worth blowing too far out of proportion either. I live in a country where chagas is endemic and even here it's exceptionally rare outside of deeply rural areas with lots of poverty and extremely low quality housing. The housing is a key transmission factor actually, since the bug tends to infect people with the parasite while they sleep, and it more easily enters barely-together rural shacks than it does properly built houses and apartments.