A Chagas disease experience

 

My 'good Samaritan' act of the day was to donate a bit of blood. Therefore, I walked into a Lifeblood donor centre — but then, with the flick of a pen and the scan of a form, I suddenly became a risk.

A nurse with teary eyes looked at me with sorrow.  

..."South American?" she asked.

"Si, mami," I replied, feeling one side of my mouth crooked upwards while I swept my eyes over her. My smile deepened as a pervert.

"Fuck that," she said and added, "There's a chance - even if you've never shown symptoms- that you might be carrying the Chagas disease with you."

The Chagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite spread by an insect native to the tropical Americas. When the Kissing bug bites you — usually on the face — it also takes a shit. And in that faeces lives the parasite. This disease causes serious heart and stomach complications. It’s not folklore. It’s rural. It’s real.

I couldn't believe what I just heard and yelled outrageously, "Wait, what!? What in the world of diseases is that?" I’ve heard about the sentimiento cholo, but never about the Chagas disease.

All of a sudden, fear began to creep into me. Sweat bloomed across my forehead. My heart rate spiked. I couldn’t handle the feeling of becoming a biohazard, a risk to society, looking at my hands and body, and in a flicker of panic, I saw the bug. The motherfucker kissing bug. That insect that crawled out from the devil’s ass to infect my blood.

I backed away slowly, eyes locked on the nurse. She called in two big fellas in white. I grabbed two lukewarm meat pies from a countertop oven and ran away.

The logic may be scientific — but the feeling? It was personal. I wasn’t sick. Nevertheless, in that moment, trying to donate blood, I felt like a sick animal.

Son of a bitch kissing-ass bug, I cried to the heavens. Why, my God, did you create that insect?

I remembered them — those bugs. I think my brother, an insect lover, used to keep them as pets in his room, alongside frogs and turtles. I was born in the “Tristes Tropiques". Maybe I carry one of those tropical parasites. One of those ancient microbial spirits.

In my panicked escape from the donor centre, I contemplated the danger I might pose to society. Two steps, I turned back, for the good of science and the sake of Carlos Chagas, the disease’s discoverer. I was surrendering myself to the centre staff.

But instead, I ran faster.

It was May 15 -National Nylon Stockings Day. As fate would have it, I was wearing some.

I pulled one over my face to hide from the cameras. Unrecognisable, I danced for the sun while crying for the progress of science.

My mind spiralled. Maybe I have to live with the other introduced species, I thought. In my altered state, I tried to join a group of Indian mynas, mimicking their chirps. But they were nesting — and they attacked me. I’ll try next with German wasps, or the infamous Argentine ants.

Eventually, I took a train to the last stop in Richmond. I started to calm down. I remembered the tropical forest, where life grows fast, colourful, and uncontainable. Where danger and beauty dance together in rhythms that science still doesn’t fully understand. I felt nostalgia. I remembered Pesto the dog. I went to the local pub and began writing a manifesto:

For jungle blood.

For Pesto.

For the ancestors of Alexander the palm.

What’s considered ‘safe’ or ‘clean’ often depends on where you're from. We are all human — but we are not all included. The rules that claim to protect everyone can quietly exclude entire continents. You can come from the U.S. and still donate blood — even though the kissing bug lives in the southern states too. Both countries have diseases. Both carry risk. But only one gets the red flag.

I left the manifesto in Blacktown Hospital’s mailbox. Then I went to Surry Hills to celebrate National Nylon Stockings Day — dancing under neon lights.

Exotic blood can be difficult to handle. This time, I was set aside — even though my heart was full, and my veins were open.

But I also realised:

We need fast, reliable testing for Chagas disease.

Not assumptions based on birthplace.