Kissing Bugs Love Lips

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After the Kissing Disease, its the Kissing Bugs that is making news. The Kissing Bug Disease also known as the Chagas' Disease is creating a havoc in South and Central America.

The Kissing bug got its name because of its love for the lips. Believe it or not, the bug has a tendency to sting on the lips. It is a disease of the poor. The bugs are found in makeshift homes with mud walls and palm tree-like ceilings.

The disease that the bugs transmits is caused by Trypanosoma Cruzi, a parasite that lives in their gut. In the initial acute stage, symptoms are relatively mild, but as the disease progresses over several years, serious chronic symptoms can appear, such as heart disease and malformation of the intestines.

Without proper treatment, it can be fatal. Scientists at the University of Toronto Mississauga are working hard to find a novel way to stop the transmission of the illness.

Currently, insecticide sprays are used to control insect populations, and anti-parasitic drugs are somewhat successful at treating acute infections. Once the disease is chronic, it is beyond cure.

To make matters worse, kissing bugs are particularly 'bloodthirsty'. Unlike mosquitoes, which suck blood only in its fourth stage of life cycle, the kissing bugs feed on blood throughout life. While only the female mosquitoes are the carriers of disease, the kissing bugs carry the virus, irrespective of the gender.

Therefore the chances of spreading the disease increases by almost ten times.