Read our Privacy noticeUp to 100,000 Californians have been infected with a potentially fatal disease — without even knowing it. There are roughly a dozen species of the blood-sucking kissing bugs in the U.S., and four are found in California. Some Los Angeles hotspots, including Griffith Park, are teeming with bugs infected with the Chagas disease parasite. “This is a disease that has been neglected and has been impacting Latin Americans for many decades,” Norman Beatty, an epidemiologist and Chagas disease expert, told the Times. “But it’s also here in the United States.”Up to 100,000 Californians have been infected with Chagas disease, caused by kissing bugs, according to a report.
