1 week ago
4
A 21-year-old farmer is the first human to be diagnosed with the New World Screwworm in Belize. The diagnosis was confirmed on Friday, August 15 after the larvae was extracted from the patient and sent to the BAHA lab for analysis. This new development comes eight and a half months after the first case of the new world screwworm was first detected in the country in a 6-month-old Brangus heifer in the Toledo District. According to the Chief of Operations for Vector Control, Kim Bautista, the farmer had sought medical attention at the Benque Viejo del Carmen Polyclinic in the Cayo District.
Kim Bautista, Chief of Operations, Vector Control Unit: “We detected a first case in a 21 year old male from Benque Viejo del Carmen in Cayo who visited the San Ignacio Hospital with a lesion which was infested with what was suspected New World Screwworm. The protocol that we have one place is that samples are sent to the BAHA entomology laboratory because the diagnosis is done not through blood tests but through entomologic confirmation of the larvae. So physically the larvae, a few of them are removed from the wound those are preserved, sent to the entomology lab where an entomologic confirmation is made by their entomologist in Central Farm. And so that was done fairly quickly the same day and what that did was confirm the first human case in Belize and then it also allowed us to immediately commence proper treatment in the management of that patient. So a check earlier today revealed that the patient is responding very well to treatment and he should be released either later today or tomorrow morning and we will be monitoring as a ministry the progress in terms of his recovery from New World Screwworm.”
The patient is in a stable condition and is responding well to treatment which includes ivermectin. Bautista notes that the patient was battling Leishmaniasis lesions which are open wounds. It is believed that an infected fly came in contact with the open wound, planting the larvae under the skin. Bautista noted that it is especially important for those with open wounds to take caution.
Kim Bautista, Chief of Operations, Vector Control Unit: “Primarily the treatment tends to be ivermectin and then also antibiotics. There are various antibiotics that may be used in combination, not to control the larvae but to prevent what we would refer to as secondary infections as a consequence of the wound that is…..the tissues that is being damaged and you know, with each passing hour that the larvae are actually eating the flesh. In this case that patient was undergoing treatment initially for a lesion, a leshmaniasis lesion and that I guess the exposure of that wound, that open flesh wound exposed him to the fly which the transmission pattern is that the fly would lay eggs on the wound. Those flies develop into maggots or larvae and that’s the larvae that starts infesting the flesh and burrowing its way into the flesh. So that was his risk factor. The message basically that the Ministry of Health and BAHA is pushing is for pet owners and animal owners and a whole to practice proper wound management and the same goes for you. It tends to eat at a very fast rate and that is why it could be potentially fatal if not identified and treated immediately. So what we’re saying to persons is that If you have a wound that you suspect there may be an infestation and you can feel that tingling, that moving, that movement in the wound whether it’s oozing or releasing some odor or something like that, to go in and get yourself checked out because then initially you might not be seeing the larvae until maybe second, third day, fourth day when it is already starting to affect you.”
English (US) ·