'Kissing Bug' making its way to Illinois

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Monday, April 29, 2019
'Kissing Bug' making its way North to Illinois
Doctors call it the Kissing Bug because it crawls around your mouth and eyes and bites you as you sleep.

The dreaded Kissing Bug is on the move spreading disease as it goes.

A map from Centers for Disease Control shows how it's made its way North, including Illinois.

RELATED: Blood-sucking 'kissing bug' confirmed in Delaware, CDC says

Doctors call it the Kissing Bug because it crawls around your mouth and eyes and bites you as you sleep.

The danger isn't in its bite though but its feces.

"Patients, when they are sleepy, the part where the insect has bitten them, they'll accidentally rub in the poop which has the organism in it into the wound. And that is how you get Chagas disease. From there it extends from the skin into the bloodstream," said Infectious Disease physician Tom Moore.

Health officials say Chagas is not to be taken lightly.

It can have a long term effect on your heart, esophagus and colon.

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