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

The Resource The kissing bug : a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease
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The kissing bug : a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease
Title remainder
a true story of a family, an insect, and a nation's neglect of a deadly disease
Statement of responsibility
Daisy Hernández
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
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
  • "Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy Hernández 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 Hernández 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, Hernández 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 Hernández'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, Hernández 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? Hernández 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. Hernández show how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden. -- adapted from jacket
Tone
Writing style
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Biography type
contains biographical information
Cataloging source
DLC
Dewey number
616.9/363
Index
no index present
LC call number
RC124.4
LC item number
.H47 2021
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Target audience
adult

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

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