CDC says Chagas disease is endemic in parts of the United States

A parasitic illness transmitted by bloodsucking insects known as kissing bugs is now considered endemic in the United States, federal health officials said in a report published in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal in September 2025. The CDC concluded that sufficient evidence exists to classify Chagas disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, as consistently present in parts of the country after finding infected bugs, animals and human cases across multiple states.

Chagas disease is most commonly spread when triatomine insects bite a person and then defecate near the wound, allowing parasites in the feces to enter the body. It can also be transmitted congenitally from mother to child, through contaminated food or drink, and more rarely by blood transfusion or organ transplant. Kissing bugs have been identified in 32 states, and the CDC said locally acquired human infections have been documented in at least eight states: California, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Arkansas. A systematic literature review cited in the report found 29 confirmed and 47 suspected locally acquired cases from 2000 to 2018, a tally experts say...