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The Resource The kissing bug : a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease, Daisy HernaÌndez

The kissing bug : a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease, Daisy HernaÌndez

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The item The kissing bug : a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease, Daisy HernaÌndez represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Forsyth County Public Library.
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Creator

Author

HernaÌndez, Daisy

Summary

"Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy HernaÌndez believed that her aunt had become deathly ill from eating an apple. No one in her family, in either the United States or Colombia, spoke of infectious diseases, and even into her thirties, she only knew that her aunt had died of a rare illness called Chagas. But as HernaÌndez dug deeper, she discovered that Chagas--or the kissing bug disease--is more prevalent in the United States than the Zika virus. Today, more than three hundred thousand Americans have Chagas. Why do some infectious diseases make headlines and others fall by the wayside? After her aunt's death, HernaÌndez begins searching for answers about who our nation chooses to take care of and who we ignore. Crisscrossing the country, she interviews patients, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. She learns that outside of Latin America, the United States is the only country with the native insects--the "kissing bugs"--that carry the Chagas parasite. She spends a night in southwest Texas hunting the dreaded bug with university researchers. She also gets to know patients, like a mother whose premature baby was born infected with the parasite, his heart already damaged. And she meets one cardiologist battling the disease in Los Angeles County with local volunteers. The Kissing Bug tells the story of how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden--and how the disease intersects with HernaÌndez's own identity as a niece, sister, and daughter; a queer woman; a writer and researcher; and a citizen of a country that is only beginning to address the harms caused by Chagas, and the dangers it poses. A riveting and nuanced investigation into racial politics and for-profit healthcare in the United States, The Kissing Bug reveals the intimate history of a marginalized disease and connects us to the lives at the center of it all"--
Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, HernaÌndez only knew that her aunt had died of a rare illness called Chagas. Digging deeper, she discovered more than three hundred thousand Americans have Chagas-- or the kissing bug disease. Why do some infectious diseases make headlines and others fall by the wayside? HernaÌndez interviews patients, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. Outside of Latin America, the United States is the only country with the native insects that carry the Chagas parasite. HernaÌndez show how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden. -- adapted from jacket

Language: eng

Work

Publication

Portland, Oregon, Tin House, 2021

Edition: First US edition: 2021.

Extent: 308 pages

Contents

A word she whispers
In search of my family's story
In search of the kissing bug
In search of other families
Her life

Isbn: 9781951142520

Instance

Label: The kissing bug : a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease

Title: The kissing bug

Title remainder: a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease

Statement of responsibility: Daisy HernaÌndez

Title variation: kissing bug

Title variation remainder: a true story of a family, an insect, and a nations neglect of a deadly disease

Creator

Author

HernaÌndez, Daisy

Subject

Genre

trueBiography

Language: eng

Summary

"Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy HernaÌndez believed that her aunt had become deathly ill from eating an apple. No one in her family, in either the United States or Colombia, spoke of infectious diseases, and even into her thirties, she only knew that her aunt had died of a rare illness called Chagas. But as HernaÌndez dug deeper, she discovered that Chagas--or the kissing bug disease--is more prevalent in the United States than the Zika virus. Today, more than three hundred thousand Americans have Chagas. Why do some infectious diseases make headlines and others fall by the wayside? After her aunt's death, HernaÌndez begins searching for answers about who our nation chooses to take care of and who we ignore. Crisscrossing the country, she interviews patients, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. She learns that outside of Latin America, the United States is the only country with the native insects--the "kissing bugs"--that carry the Chagas parasite. She spends a night in southwest Texas hunting the dreaded bug with university researchers. She also gets to know patients, like a mother whose premature baby was born infected with the parasite, his heart already damaged. And she meets one cardiologist battling the disease in Los Angeles County with local volunteers. The Kissing Bug tells the story of how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden--and how the disease intersects with HernaÌndez's own identity as a niece, sister, and daughter; a queer woman; a writer and researcher; and a citizen of a country that is only beginning to address the harms caused by Chagas, and the dangers it poses. A riveting and nuanced investigation into racial politics and for-profit healthcare in the United States, The Kissing Bug reveals the intimate history of a marginalized disease and connects us to the lives at the center of it all"--
Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, HernaÌndez only knew that her aunt had died of a rare illness called Chagas. Digging deeper, she discovered more than three hundred thousand Americans have Chagas-- or the kissing bug disease. Why do some infectious diseases make headlines and others fall by the wayside? HernaÌndez interviews patients, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. Outside of Latin America, the United States is the only country with the native insects that carry the Chagas parasite. HernaÌndez show how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden. -- adapted from jacket

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