According to the U.S. Department of Health (HHS), Marylanders have been confirmed to be infected with the meat-eating New World screwworm parasite.
The Maryland patient was back in the US after traveling to El Salvador, HHS spokesman Andrew G. Nixon told Reuters in an email, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed infection by a New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) via images of the August larvae, according to Axios.
“This is the first human case of New World’s Thread Myopathy (invasion of parasites infestations of fly larvae) related to travel from countries affected by the outbreak identified in the US,” Nixon said in an email to Axios. However, “the risk to US public health from this referral is very low,” he added.
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C. hominivorax is a parasitic fly species that lays eggs in open wounds, eyes, nose, or warm blood mouth. Female screwworm flies can lay up up to 300 eggs at a time. When the eggs become hatch, the larvae of the screwworm use their sharp mouths to dig holes in the host’s flesh, causing a painful invasion called myasis.
Screwworms in the new world primarily affect cattle and other livestock, but can also cause invasions of humans. If left untreated, the invasion can be fatal, but doctors can usually treat myopathy by removing the larvae. According to the CDC, people who work with livestock to weaken their immune systems or sleep outdoors are at the highest risk of developing an infection. But it’s not infectious because screwworms are insects, not viruses, so it’s not infectious, Max Scott, a professor of entomology and plant pathology at North Carolina State University, told NPR.
According to the CDC, New World screwworms are endemic to South America and the Caribbean, and are not commonly found in the US. So far, no cases of screwworm invasion have been found in US animals. In the 1960s, the United States eradicated New World screwworms in the country by flying into areas where male sterile insects had invaded. Sterile flies are mated with wild female flies, but their eggs did not hatch, resulting in a reduced population of screwworms.
Since 2023, the screwworm population has been increasing in Central America, slowly spreading north. In November 2024, the invasion of screwworms in Mexico prompted the US to temporarily suspend livestock imports at its tropical borders. Imports resumed in January, but stopped again in May. The port is currently being reopened in phases, with new sterilized fly dispersion facilities being constructed in southern Texas, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
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