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Fly Larvae in Humans (Myiasis)
Published in Jerome Goddard, Public Health Entomology, 2022
Cases of facultative myiasis are fairly obvious—maggots clearly visible in wounds or sores—but obligate myiasis from bot flies may be more difficult to diagnose. Boil-like or nodular lesions on human skin can result from many things, including staphylococcal infections, cat-scratch disease, tick-bite granuloma, tungiasis (a burrowing flea), and infestation with various parasitic worms (such as Dirofilaria, Loa loa, and Onchocerca), as well as many other causes. Nodular lesions eventually ulcerate if the inflammatory process is intense enough to destroy the overlying epidermis, but lesions from myiasis do not ulcerate. The central core of the lesion should be examined for evidence of a fly larva, as the larva sometimes can be clearly seen just below the skin surface. Another helpful clue in diagnosing myiasis with the human bot fly, Dermatobia hominis, is that sometimes the pointed posterior end of the larva protrudes from the central opening as high as 5 mm above the skin.
Myiasis (Invasion of Human Tissues by Fly Larvae)
Published in Gail Miriam Moraru, Jerome Goddard, The Goddard Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, Seventh Edition, 2019
Gail Miriam Moraru, Jerome Goddard
Fly larvae infesting the organs and tissues of people or animals is referred to as myiasis. The condition occurs in several forms that can be primarily classified—at least from their evolutionary roots—as saprophagous and sanguinivorous.1,2 Not all myiasis involves long-term tissue infestation; for example, the Congo floor maggot in Africa does not embed itself in tissue but only sucks blood from its host for a short time (see Chapter 21). Specific cases of myiasis are clinically defined by the areas affected; for example, there may be traumatic (wound), gastric, rectal, auricular, and urogenital myiasis, among others. Myiasis can be accidental, when fly larvae occasionally find their way into the human body, or facultative, when fly larvae enter living tissue opportunistically after feeding on decaying tissue in neglected, malodorous wounds. Myiasis can also be obligate, in which the fly larvae must spend part of their developmental stages in living tissue. Obligate myiasis is the most serious form of the condition from a pathogenic standpoint and constitutes true parasitism.
Infections and infestations affecting the nail
Published in Eckart Haneke, Histopathology of the NailOnychopathology, 2017
Myiasis is caused by fly larvae of different species. Whereas wound myiasis is extremely rare on fingers, it may occur on toes in neglected individuals; many different flies including Calliphoridae from Central Europe are responsible.419 Furuncular myiasis is mainly seen on the head and trunk; it is due to the African tumbu fly Cordylobia anthropophaga or by the American botfly Dermatobia hominis.420 This lesion is painful in the nail region. The creeping myiasis, which must not be confused with larva migrans, is caused by larvae of Gasterophilus and Hypoderma species, flies that parasite in horses and cattle.
Myiasis infestation superimposed on pacemaker infection
Published in Acta Cardiologica, 2020
Neiberg de Alcantara Lima, Stela Maria Vitorino Sampaio, Francisco Marcelo Sobreira Filho, Danielli Oliveira da Costa Lino, Ricardo Lessa de Castro, Anandbir Bath, Carol Cavalcante de Vasconcelos Lima, Richard R Roach
Myiasis is an ectoparasitic infestation of necrotic tissues by the dipterous larvae of higher flies. Larval maggots infest external orificies or open wounds causing cavitary and wound myiasis. In developed countries, wound myiasis is often a sign of neglected hygiene and wound management. Treatment involves larvae removal and antibiotics for associated bacterial infection.