JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- South Africa announced on Wednesday that it identified a skin-worm sickness which has brokenout in the Mafikeng area about 900 km northwest of Johannesburg.
The Northwest provincial health department said that the condition is Cutaneous Myiasis, a skin condition caused by Cordylobia Anthropophaga (tumbu fly, mango fly, putsi fly).
The department said the fly was widely found in Africa, and dogs and rodents were the usual hosts. Humans were accidental hosts.
Although it is not usually found in the North West province, itis found in other parts of South Africa such as Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
Provincial health spokesman Tebogo Lekgethwane said: "It is related to the weather pattern and is common in the lowveld, in hot humid areas."
The department reported on Tuesday that the sickness had hit several villages around Mafikeng.
People come to clinics complaining that their body is itching. Within three days small sores develop. A yellow spot then developsfrom each sore as it gets ripe. Once the sore is expressed a worm comes out of it.
Lekgethwane said the Communicable Disease Control Unit had consulted widely regarding the outbreak.
It and other reliable sources including the parasitology unit of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases had agreed it was Cutaneous Myiasis.
A female fly lays eggs on clothes or soil contaminated with urine or faeces.
The larvae that emerge from the eggs penetrate the skin painlessly.
An enlarging papule (small pimple), resembling a boil, developsover about six days. Eventually the larva is large enough for close examination to reveal small dark lines with pus in the center.
The department said treatment consisted of covering the lesion with Vaseline or liquid paraffin which suffocated the larva. Treatment should be left on for 30 minutes to an hour and then thelarva should be pushed out via finger pressure.
It said attempted removal by instruments may rupture the larva and cause severe inflammation.
Although the ironing of clothes would kill any eggs laid on them, washing should not be laid on the ground to dry, it said. Enditem
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