While on safari in Tanzania, Africa, an American tourist gazed across the broad savannah. He saw gazelles, wildebeests, zebras, and giraffes through the shimmering heat. It was a peaceful scene, although predators lurked about. A small tsetse fly, one of many regional insect pests, landed on the tourist's bare leg and bit him, taking a drop of blood. The bite stung a little, but that was not the only problem. As it fed, the fly had injected something dangerous. After a few days a painful chancre formed. Next came fever, headache, enlarged lymph nodes, and a rash. Without treatment the tourist's brain would eventually become affected, causing sleepiness, coma, and death. On the continent of South America, about 3,000 miles (4,828 km) to the west, a young girl slept in a small thatched hut in a rain forest. Outside thousands of insects were chirping. Most of the insects were outdoors, but some were in the hut along with the child. A large insect crept from a crevice in the wall toward the sleeping girl. Once on her face, the insect took a blood meal, defecated (eliminated waste from the hindgut) on the wound, and then left. It was a nasty bite, but that was not the worst part of the experience. The kissing bug, while defecating, had placed thousands of live organisms in the girl's wound. A chagoma, a type of ulcer, appeared at the wound site first, followed by fever, malaise, and enlargement of lymph nodes, spleen, and liver. Without treatment there might have been a deadly progression to the heart and brain.