Deadly kissing bug disease spreads

 People -  Chagas disease, which is spread through an insect known as the “kissing bug,” has spread to 32 states in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the triatomine insect  — called the “kissing bug” because it bites people on the face — has been found in several southern U.S. states, and that hundreds of thousands of people could already be infected without knowing.

Human infections have been identified in eight states — Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and California — according to a map on the CDC’s website. Cases of Chagas disease in animals have also been found in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland.

The CDC said, per UCLA Health, that more than 300,000 people in the U.S. — including 45,000 people in Los Angeles County — could be affected with Chagas disease. However, fewer than 2% of those people know they carry the parasite transmitted by the “kissing bug.”