Welcome to paging Dr. Gupta.

You know, this is one of my favorite shows.

I love it.

I get to hear your voices.

I get to answer your questions.

I don't have scripts.

So a lot of riffing, a lot of talking to experts, but hopefully we're addressing the things

that are concerning you right now.

Kira, let's cut to the chase.

Who do we have first?

Hey, Sanjay.

Okay, so our first question today is coming from a listener named Dietra.

And she wants to know about kissing bug disease.

Now, I don't know too much about this topic,

and so I felt like this was a very interesting thing to learn about today.

And so she's asking, what exactly is the treatment for kissing bug disease?

Okay, Deirdre, Kira, thank you so much.

Kissing bug disease, also called Chagas disease, that's spelled C-H-A-G-A-S.

It is a condition caused by a parasite. There's bacteria, there is viruses,

and there are parasites. Those are the typical pathogens. This one is caused by a parasite,

and it's been in the news a lot lately, so let me give you a little bit of background.

First of all, it's caused by a parasite known as T-osoma cruz-y, T-Cruzzi. It's spread through contact with the triadomine bugs,

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