Abstract
The 1899 United States Kissing Bug Epidemic.
Highlights
What we unearthed was an unexpected “outbreak” of kissing bug assaults that were reported in newspapers across the nation
Ten years before Carlos Chagas described Chagas disease, the US experienced a multi-city hysteria caused by the routine, nightly bites of the “kissing bug” that resulted in numerous hospitalizations and even a few deaths
Between June and July of 1899, reports of kissing bug victims were rampant across the continental US (Fig 1)
Summary
Reports of Chagas disease from across Latin America were published, classifying these countries as endemic with continual transmission occurring [2]. The United States has long been considered a non-endemic country due to the opinion that transmission between local vector populations and humans is non-existent or infrequent [3]. We recently published an extensive review with published reports of routine human exposure to nocturnal Triatominae vector bites and continual reports of autochthonous transmission to Texas locals over the past 60 years [4].
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