Scientists are calling on health authorities to classify Chagas disease – sometimes known as the "kissing bug disease" – as endemic to the United States.

Chagas disease, a parasitic infection spread by bugs, mostly infects people in Central and South America. Still, human cases have been reported in Missouri and seven other states, and the bug that carries the parasite has been found in both Missouri and Illinois.

In an article published this month in the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the article’s authors called for doctors, public officials and health agencies to classify Chagas as endemic – or regularly occurring – to the United States.

“The United States is often labeled as nonendemic, and this designation permeates the scientific literature, the Centers for Disease C

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