Ebola virus disease

Kissing Could Kill Me: Men Must Follow Three Strict Rules Before We Smooch Because Of This Chronic Condition

Call it the kiss of death.

Lusty lads looking to lock lips with Caroline Cray Quinn better be careful because a smooch could prove fatal.

The Boston-based beauty suffers from severe food allergies, as well as a chronic condition known as mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). 

MCAS is an immune disease that causes her cells to incorrectly identify things as severe allergens — including all but two foods, oats and hypoallergenic formula.

The disorder causes intense episodes of swelling, shortness of breath, hives, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms. In severe cases, it may lead to life-threatening anaphylaxis, per ClevelandClinic. 

Thus any men looking to kiss Quinn need to follow three rules.

"Rule No. 1 is that they can't have any of my six main anaphylactic allergens (peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, kiwi, mustard or seafood) within 24 hours of kissing me," Quinn explained to more than 1.7 million TikTok viewers in a viral vid. 

Quinn spelled out the three main musts that daters have to agree to before stealing a kiss. Jam Press Vid/@carolinecray2

"The second rule is that they can't eat anything three hours prior to kissing me," the cautious kisser continued in the clip. "Rule No. 3 is that they have to brush their teeth."

Should a prospective paramour fail to meet those prerequisites prior to puckering up, the consequences could be deadly for the blonde.

The Zommer says she's dealt with flushing after kissing a guy who ultimately triggered her allergies. Jam Press/@carolinecray2 Quinn has had to be hospitalized due to the graveness of her condition. Jam Press/@carolinecray2 The Bostonian can experience anaphylaxis at any time due to her many allergens. Jam Press/@carolinecray2

And, sadly, she's not alone. 

Roughly one in six people, including the A-list likes of singers Billie Eilish and Halsey, are diagnosed with a form of mast cell disease, with MCAS being the most common, according to the Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) Clinic. 

Natasha Coates, 27, a UK gymnast stricken with the disease, is severely allergic to "strong emotions." Bouts of laughter, sadness or stress could trigger a fatal chemical reaction. 

Coates, who, like Quinn, has shared the harrowing details of her health struggles online, revealed she planned her own funeral at age 20 due to the seriousness of her sickness. 

Rather than restricting herself to a life of limited love, Quinn cautiously kisses guys who met her strict standards. Jam Press/@carolinecray2

Quinn, however, has made it her mission to focus on living a "full and happy" life, rather than preparing for death since being diagnosed with MCAS in 2017, she tells NeedToKnow. 

"I got sick with MCAS in September of 2017 after one true allergic reaction to cross-contamination with nuts spiraled into a series of anaphylactic episodes to foods I wasn't allergic to," said the survivor, who works as a healthcare recruiter. 

"My allergist at the time suspected it could be MCAS but needed me to see a specialist in order to get the proper diagnosis," she added. "After a long wait list of eight months, I saw an MCAS specialist who officially diagnosed me."

"[The condition] presents in a lot of uncomfortable and life-threatening symptoms like difficulty breathing, swelling/itchiness in throat and mouth, loss of consciousness, low blood pressure, and hives/rashes," said Quinn. "In order to avoid MCAS flare-ups and MCAS symptoms, I avoid triggers like food, animal fur/dander, mold, dust, heat, and certain smells."

But when it comes to swapping spit, the sweetheart throws caution to the wind — kind of.

"Kissing boys is definitely a risk," she told TikTok watchers. "It invites potential instability into my life. But so does everyday life for me."

Quinn, who could experience anaphylaxis from something as benign as a dog's lick on her cheek, said she'd rather roll the dice by smooching a smoke-show than abstaining altogether. 

Quinn says her kissing rules helps her avoid kissing frogs. Jam Press/@carolinecray2

"I could completely avoid kissing and just live in a bubble when it comes to relationships," she said. "But I choose to take little calculated risks so that I can live a full and happy life."

Thankfully, Quinn has only endured minor allergic reactions while canoodling with a hunk.

"My mouth will get itchy, my lips and my tongue will get itchy," she said online, adding that she's also experienced "a bit of flushing [and] some head rush." To quell the flare-ups, Quinn immediately brushes her teeth and downs a dose of emergency medications like Benadryl.

The selective siren says strict stipulations around sucking face have not only safeguarded her immune system — they've also helped her avoid kissing frogs.  

Quinn "hard launched" Ryan to her social media followers in August. Jam Press/@carolinecray2

"It immediately weeds out any guys who don't really give a s—t about you," insisted Quinn, who recently used the litmus test to land new boyfriend, Ryan. 

The twosome met this summer. 

Quinn quickly introduced Ryan to her super restrictive diet of oats and formula, which — judging from her digital posts dedicated to their budding romance — he happily scarfs down to ensure the safety of their make-out sessions. 

"If they have to follow a few rules to kiss you, then they obviously care, they're obviously interested and they're willing to put in a good amount of effort," said Quinn. 

"So if you ever want to know if a guy is serious about you, just tell them you have MACS and tell them to follow the three rules, and you'll know immediately!"

A Little-known Parasite Infects 300,000 People In The U.S.

This story appears in the June 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.

I grew up believing that my auntie had almost died because she ate an apple in South America.

According to the family stories, the fruit had been contaminated, or maybe an insect had been crawling on it and had bitten Tía Dora. However it had happened, my family understood this: A New York doctor had diagnosed my auntie with Chagas disease. It meant my auntie could die. We didn't ask questions. English wasn't our first language. My parents worked in factories. We took care of my auntie as she went in and out of hospitals for decades. When I reached my late 30s, Tía Dora was rushed to the hospital one night. A week later, she died. She was 59 years old, and I thought Chagas was a rare disease. I was wrong.

Named after the Brazilian doctor who discovered the disease in 1909, Chagas is more prevalent today in the United States than the Zika virus. And in the Western Hemisphere, the disease burden of Chagas is almost eight times that of malaria.

Some 10,000 people die each year from Chagas disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 300,000 people living in the United States have the disease. Many, like my auntie, grew up in poor communities in South America, Central America, or Mexico. Few know they have Chagas disease because the parasite that causes it, Trypanosoma cruzi, is a cunning microorganism.

The parasite can live in the body throughout a person's life without causing symptoms, but 20 to 30 percent of infected people will suffer cardiac damage.

It's transmitted to people by way of a triatomine insect called a kissing bug. In the acute stage, people usually can be cured; unfortunately, less than one percent of infected people are diagnosed or treated. The parasite can live in the body throughout a person's life without causing symptoms, but 20 to 30 percent of infected people will suffer cardiac damage. Chagas-related heart problems include irregular heartbeats, left ventricular aneurysms, and even heart failure.

Just as frightening is this: T. Cruzi can cross the placenta. It's estimated that as many as 315 babies a year are born with Chagas in the United States. I think of them as the "no-name babies" because health officials don't know who these children are. Pregnant women are not routinely screened for Chagas in the United States.

Another target of the bug's bite

In the United States, transmission of the deadly Trypanosoma cruzi parasite to humans is rare, but dogs appear to be more vulnerable. A recent study tested for Chagas disease among dogs that U.S. Agencies use in tasks such as sniffing for explosives or helping with search-and-rescue operations. Though the dogs showed no signs of being sick, more than 7 percent of those tested were infected. "When we take a look at their hearts, then we see signs of heart disease," says study director Sarah Hamer, an associate professor at Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science. Similar rates of infection have been found among dogs in Texas animal shelters. Scientists say dogs might be more at risk for the disease than people because dogs may eat bugs that carry the parasite. However, they say, the risk of infection passing from dogs to humans is extremely low. —DH

In 2014, a few years after my auntie's death, I traveled to Colombia. At the University of the Andes in Bogotá, biologist Felipe Guhl has been studying the kissing bug disease for more than four decades. There I learned that these insects are homebodies, often living where they don't have to crawl far to reach prey. That might be a human, a dog, a marsupial, a raccoon—the bugs aren't picky about which animals they bite. In rural areas of Latin America, they live in the cracks of mud houses during the day and come out at night to feed. The bite, though painless, leaves a small wound. The T. Cruzi parasite is in the bugs' feces and is transmitted when fecal material enters the bite wound.

Guhl says that to eradicate Chagas, you'd have to do away with wildlife—obviously not possible. Also, given the beetle-like bug's many species, "It's like a baseball game," he says. If you get rid of one, "there are other players on the bench." And the parasite itself is ancient. Guhl and an international team of researchers found T. Cruzi in 9,000-year-old mummies from the deserts of Peru and Chile.

Having grown up hearing about Chagas disease and knowing that a dreaded bug could kill me, the last thing I wanted was to see one. And yet I did. Maybe I wanted to face my fears. Maybe I wanted to see the truth of what I only knew as family folklore.

Off I went with Guhl's research assistant to see their insect colony. The day was chilly, but when the graduate student opened the door to a room the size of a walk-in closet, I stepped into a world both balmy and dimly lit. Think of a mild summer night out in the woods of North Carolina.

The room had shelves filled with glass jars of kissing bugs crawling on filter paper folded accordion style. Several were dark with pretty patterns of amber and black at the edges of their abdomens. Some, like the Rhodnius prolixus, were less than an inch long; others, like the Panstrongylus geniculatus, were longer. Kissing bugs tend to fly when they're starving. Now they began scrambling up the filter paper toward the cheesecloth covering on the jars. The graduate student smiled at me weakly. "They think we're going to feed them," he said. Their dinner? Chicken blood.

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Kissing bugs are native to the United States, too. At Texas A&M in College Station, the entomology department has about a hundred specimens, collected years ago. In fact, Texas has the greatest diversity of kissing bug species in the country, and the CDC funded the start of the Texas Chagas Taskforce to raise awareness there.

The CDC, however, estimates 75 or fewer cases of what could be called "homegrown Chagas"—cases where people have been infected by kissing bugs native to the United States.

Disease Cases Down

The World Health Organization lists Chagas, sleeping sickness, and Guinea worm disease among "neglected tropical diseases." But there's progress reining them in thanks to successful interventions: controlling for disease vectors, ensuring that people can filter their water, and getting infected people access to health care. Chagas disease1990: 30 million infected2010: 6 to 8 million infected The blood-sucking triatomine bug transmits the parasite that causes Chagas disease. The insect is active at night, searching for a meal—and earned its English-language name "kissing bug" because it generally bites an exposed part of the body such as the face. The feces left by the bug near its bite carry the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite, which can be spread to the wound when the bite is rubbed or scratched.

Gabriel Hamer/TAMU

If we have kissing bugs aplenty in Texas and some 300,000 people in the U.S. Infected, why do so few of us know about Chagas? "It's a disease of poverty," says Sheba Meymandi, a cardiologist whose team in California's San Fernando Valley has screened about 9,000 people who were born in Latin America for the disease. Many of the people infected have other issues to worry about: their immigration status, diabetes, and jobs that vanish overnight. Patients come to her when their hearts are failing. Because Chagas isn't easily transmitted between people, the disease stays largely confined to the Latino community—and that contributes to the lack of knowledge about it.

Through word of mouth in the Washington, D.C., area, I met Janet, a law school graduate from South America who's married to a U.S. Citizen and who asked that we not use her last name to preserve her privacy. Janet had never been screened for Chagas, but her dad was infected and so was her sister. In 2015, pregnant with her second son, she found herself in an emergency room. Her baby, born at 30 weeks, was infected with T. Cruzi. While babies infected with this parasite often don't show any signs of distress, Janet's premature son weighed less than four pounds and already had scar tissue on his heart. "It was shocking to learn that I could transmit this to my baby," she told me.

Doctors were able to treat Janet's son. But the recommended guidelines for newborn screening from the Department of Health and Human Services don't include congenital Chagas disease, even though there are more estimated cases of the disease than at least 15 other diseases currently listed.

This is particularly devastating because the drug benznidazole can often eliminate the parasite in infected children. In 2017 the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for use among children. It sounds like good news, and it is, except benznidazole, which was developed in the 1960s and '70s, can have negative side effects for people with chronic Chagas. The other drug available for Chagas, nifurtimox, also has these limitations. Research funds continue to be scarce for this disease.

I've come a long way from thinking that my auntie ate a poisoned apple and contracted an infectious disease. However, the real story—spanning borders and sitting at the intersection of science and social issues like poverty and immigration—has also become more complicated than anything I could have imagined when I was a child.

Daisy Hernández is the author of A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir and co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. She is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at Miami University in Ohio, and her book, In Search of the Kissing Bug, is forthcoming from Tin House Books.

Correction: A previous version of this article included an incorrect picture of the triatomine bug. It has been updated with a correct picture.

Four Hidden Health Risks Of Sharing A Vape Including Mono, Meningitis And Herpes

There are a number of little known risks that come with sharing vapes, particularly bacterial illnesses Experts have shared the dangers of sharing a vape (

Image: Getty Images)

People who vape are being warned the habit could be causing some grim health problems they may not realise is due to their device. According to recent figures, nearly 10% of the population in the UK regularly use e-cigarettes - the equivalent of one million Brits.

Many people consider vaping a healthier alternative to smoking, meaning they may not realise the risks that come with it. But there are various side effects to be aware of, particularly if you share a device with your friends or family.

Sharing isn't always caring and it is recommended to avoid sharing vapes with others wherever possible. With an increased amount of people vaping in the UK, raising awareness around the safety of appropriately handling a vape, especially around sharing, is very important. The experts at Electric Tobacconist have shared their insight into the potential health risks associated with vape sharing.

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Pascal Culverhouse, on behalf of Electric Tobacconist, said: "It is sensible hygiene to not share your vape with other people as this can lead to cross-contamination which could potentially increase the risk of contracting viral infections, serious diseases or posing a significant threat to those with allergies.

"If you're offered a vape and you don't feel comfortable sharing, politely tell your friend that you feel uncomfortable doing so. If they continue to push this, simply state that you're protecting your boundaries and that you don't want to risk contracting any unwanted bacterial illnesses."

Health risks associated with sharing a vape

1. Increased risk of being exposed to viral infections

When sharing a vape, you're increasing your chances of becoming more susceptible to a number of viral infections, such as common colds and flus, but also more serious diseases such as mono and meningitis. Since vapes can be a breeding ground for bacteria if not cleaned properly, it's very important to regularly keep up the maintenance of your vape, especially reusable box vapes or pens that require coils or filters.

Colds/Flus

Since vaping involves inhaling aerosol which can contain droplets of saliva, it's no surprise that sharing a vape can increase the risks of transmitting respiratory infections such as colds, flus and even more serious diseases such as Covid-19 and pneumonia.

Experts shared the health risks of vape sharing (

Image:

PA Wire/PA Images)

Mono

While sharing a vape is not the only way to contract mono - also known as the 'kissing disease' - it certainly increases the risk, alongside drinking from the same glass, kissing and sharing utensils.

Meningitis

Meningitis is a serious infection that can be caused by various bacteria and viruses. As sharing a vape can lead to the transfer of saliva from one person to another, this in turn increases the risk of coming into contact with harmful bacteria or viruses.

2. Increased risk of contracting Herpes

While Herpes is known as a sexually transmitted disease, it can also be spread through non-sexual contact through sharing personal items, such as a vape. If you experience any symptoms such as sores, pain or blisters, it's important to seek a doctor's advice for a diagnosis.

3. Exposure to higher nicotine levels than you're used to

For avid vapers, their devices are usually tailored depending on individual tastes and preferences. Since it is possible to change the nicotine strength of a vape, be mindful that the vape you're sharing will likely be adjusted to a nicotine strength of their liking which as a result may be a higher strength than what you're used to.

4. Increased risk of being susceptible to food allergies

It is also wise to avoid sharing a vape if you've got any form of food allergy, regardless of how minor or severe it may be as sharing a vape can increase the risk of food allergy flares. This is because vape flavours can often contain various additives and flavourings and sharing can expose you to unknown substances, potentially triggering an allergic reaction.

Notably, if someone you're sharing a vape with has recently eaten something that you are allergic to, it can introduce those allergens into your system. This happens as the allergens from the food are capable of being transferred to the vape and then inhaled, triggering an allergic reaction.

According to the NHS vaping is "not completely risk-free", but poses a "small fraction of the risk of smoking cigarettes." However, the long-term risks of vaping are not yet clear.

E-cigarettes do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most harmful elements in tobacco smoke. The liquid and vapour contain some potentially harmful chemicals also found in cigarette smoke, but at a much lower level.

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