The Kissing Bug

Richer than I'd anticipated. It all centers around Chagas Disease, including the parasite and its vector, but there's much more: it's also unexpectedly personal. In large part it's a tribute to Hernández's aunt Dora, a key but conflicting figure in her life, who suffered from and died of Chagas. Hernández is queer, her aunt rejected her for it as well as for other facets of Hernández's strong personality, so yeah lotta irreconcilable feelings there. (Full disclosure: I seem to be missing the gene that makes one care deeply about being 100% accepted by intolerant assholes, family or not. So I have a hard time empathizing with the author's pain here. I recognize it, but could not relate.)

But the aunt thing is just a leitmotif—a little tiresome (sorry!) but not overly intrusive. Hernández explores so many factors relating to Chagas: its prevalence; the (for the most part) apathy and ignorance surrounding it in the medical communities, both in the U.S. and even in parts of South America; compassionate deep-dives into a handful of lives impacted by it, sufferers and researchers and carers; the range of its insect host, including in the Southwest U.S. She writes well, making the reader feel close. And it's a darn interesting disease, fiendish, hiding in the body, causing slow heart damage in some, esophageal distress in a few, and leaving others entirely unharmed. This is a short, informative, and highly readable work, recommended reading in a general-information kind of way... especially for those of us in the Southwest.

(Amusing—perhaps only to me?—anecdote: one reason I picked up this book is that I'm a regular platelet donor and one of the screening questions is—or was—have you ever had Chagas disease or babesiosis. On my donation yesterday I was surprised that they no longer ask about Chagas, so I asked the head phlebotomist, when did they take out that question? She got this sheepish look: like me, she hadn't realized the question was gone. And started looking. And looking. And finally, after a while, tracked it down to... May 2018. Shows how much easier it is to notice an addition than a subtraction.)

A mix of memoir and science, I think this really works. It was both so emotional and informative. I had heard a little bit about Chagas - thanks to the great podcast This Podcast Will Kill you! - but didn't know the full breadth and depth of the issue.

I think how Hernandez brings in the concepts of the “epi-divide” and how so much of healthcare in the US and the world is about your wealth and privilege, is SO important.