For the first time, an individual in San Diego County has tested positive for Chagas disease after acquiring the parasitic infection locally.
The case was identified through a routine blood donation screening in a donor who exhibited no symptoms, county spokesperson Fernanda Lopez Halvorson said in a Monday news release.
Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and is typically spread when parasite-laden feces from an infected insect called a triatomine — commonly known as a kissing bug — enter the bite wound after the insect feeds. The disease is more common in Latin America, but it has increasingly been found in California in recent years…