It might sound like a fake virus you want your significant other to catch -- but it's definitely the wrong kind of cootie.
The "Kissing Bug" disease has some
8 million people scared for their life in Latin America. Also known as the Chagas disease, the life-threatening illness is passed to people by this freaky little guy, called a "kissing bug" or "assassin bug."
And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates around
300,000 people in the U.S. might be infected.
Severe cases can cause heart failure and brain inflammation, but the disease can also go undetected for years at a time. Some 11,000 people died from the disease every year.
It's not necessarily easy to become infected. People are exposed to the parasite through feces of insects that are carrying it, usually through a cut in the skin.
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/07/2...n-us/20937622/
