Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • The Kissing Bug

  • A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease
  • By: Daisy Hernández
  • Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
  • Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Kissing Bug

By: Daisy Hernández
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Who does the United States take care of and who does it leave behind? This is a riveting investigation of infectious disease, poverty, racism, and for-profit health care - and the harm caused by decades of silence.

Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy Hernández believed that her aunt had become deathly ill from eating an apple. No one in her family, in either the United States or Colombia, spoke of infectious diseases, and even into her 30s, she only knew that her aunt had died of a rare illness called Chagas. But as Hernández dug deeper, she discovered that Chagas - or the kissing bug disease - is more prevalent in the United States than the Zika virus. Today, more than 300,000 Americans have Chagas.

Why do some infectious diseases make headlines and others fall by the wayside? After her aunt’s death, Hernández begins searching for answers about who our nation chooses to take care of and who we ignore. Crisscrossing the country, she interviews patients, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. She learns that outside of Latin America, the United States is the only country with the native insects - the “kissing bugs” - that carry the Chagas parasite. She spends a night in southwest Texas hunting the dreaded bug with university researchers. She also gets to know patients, like a mother whose premature baby was born infected with the parasite, his heart already damaged. And she meets one cardiologist battling the disease in Los Angeles County with local volunteers.

The Kissing Bug tells the story of how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden - and how the disease intersects with Hernández’s own identity as a niece, sister, and daughter; a queer woman; a writer and researcher; and a citizen of a country that is only beginning to address the harms caused by Chagas and the dangers it poses. A riveting and nuanced investigation into racial politics and for-profit health care in the United States, The Kissing Bug reveals the intimate history of a marginalized disease and connects us to the lives at the center of it all.

©2021 Daisy Hernández (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2
activate_samplebutton_t1

Listeners also enjoyed...

Sisters of the Southern Cross cover art
The Memory of an Elephant cover art
The End of Feeling cover art
Monique and the Mango Rains cover art
Rembrandt Is in the Wind cover art
Tip of the Iceberg cover art
The Preacher's Bride cover art
Sidroc the Dane: A Circle of Ceridwen Saga Story cover art
The Good, the God and the Ugly cover art
The Covenant of Water cover art
Jan Ullrich cover art
A Snake Falls to Earth cover art
A Seaside Practice cover art
Captains and the Kings cover art
The Home Place cover art
Isaiah's Daughter cover art

What listeners say about The Kissing Bug

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.