The Kissing Bug is the story of one family, an insect and a nation’s neglect of a deadly disease called Chagas.
Here are pictures of my auntie who is at the center of the book, as well as images from my reporting for the book.
Tía Dora and me at the airport in Bogota, 1978.
Tía Dora and her physician, Dr. Alfred Markowitz, at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York City, 1980.
With Tía Dora on the Staten Island Ferry, 1981.
Tía Dora, my sister, Liliana, and myself, 1984.
Tía Dora and José Capunay on their wedding day in New Jersey.
Carlos required a heart transplant because of Chagas disease. Here he is at home in Maryland in 2016 showing me the device that kept his heart pumping.
Tía Dora in Bogota, 1970s.
Tía Dora in New Jersey years after Chagas-related surgeries.
This is a kissing bug, or triatomine insect, which can carry the parasite causing Chagas disease. These are native to the United States. I snapped the photograph during my reporting trip at Texas A&M University in 2017.
Researchers at Texas A&M University, Dr. Sarah and Gabe Hamer, placed these kissing bugs in resin for public outreach programs.
A kissing bug from my reporting trip to Soatá, Colombia in 2018. This is the species Triatoma dimidiata. While there are more than 100 species that can carry the parasite for Chagas disease, a few like T. dimidiata are the most common.
In Northern Virginia, in 2016, researchers used this rapid test in a church basement to screen the local community for Chagas disease.