Saw lots of these things as a kid growing up in west africa. There was a
thing called a red fly that caused panic and mayhem whenever one was sighted
as it laid eggs under the skin that developed into a small pus filled sac
full of maggot like worms. It used to stop even the most important official
cocktail parties until it was flattened!.
Others used to devleop worms , rather like filaria, and my father once had
one that migrated across the vitreous of his eye!!. He got three weeks home
leave for that and ended up in the School for TD&M in London.
There were all sorts of other nasty things , another laid eggs on clothes on
the drying line, and if they were not properly ironed the larvae switched
over to sweaty bodies to cause all sorts of horrible lesions!
Then there were the sand flys, the bilharzia, malaria, and one friend who
got Lassa Fever! And those are just the little animals - the big ones like
mambas and cobras used to get into the bed rooms which made for an
interesting bedtime and then there were the ants, I could go on for
hours......
These things are no urban myth!! I would stay put Jel!
Iain
----- Original Message -----
From: Jel Coward <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 11:03 PM
Subject: bugging me
> A friend of mine recently saw someone in A+E - the pt had been to Costa
> Rica - been bitten on the abdo by some sort of insect about 6 weeks
> previously - then felt like something was moving inside her abdominal
> wall
>
> There was a pointing lesion which popped when it was probed and a larva
> the size of a thumb tip wriggled out
>
> I know there is a lot of urban myth about these sorts of things - but
> this happened yesterday
>
> I think the larva has been sent for identification
>
> How many of these crop up - is there any literature about it?
>
> The pt has another red area which is somewhat indurated and different in
> appearance - she was offered exploration but decided to 'wait and see' -
> a brave choice I reckon!
>
> Cheers all
>
> Enjoy your meal ;-)
> --
> Jel Coward
>
> The UK Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician and Command Physician
course
> site has been updated - take a look for course dates in 2000!!
>
> http://www.wildmedic.org
> http://www.wemsi.org
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> 'There's no such thing as bad weather - just bad clothing"
> Anon Norwegian
>
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