USDA Confirms New World Screwworm Case in Northern Mexico, 62 Miles from Texas Border
U.S. officials confirmed a case of New World screwworm in Mexico, about 62 miles from the Texas border, marking the northernmost active instance. The risk to the U.S. remains low with no evidence of the parasite in American animals. Health experts detailed symptoms, treatment, and prevention amid ongoing detections near the border.
Vyacheslav_1980 / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed a New World screwworm case in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, approximately 62 miles from the Texas border. This marks the northernmost active case in Mexico. Federal health officials reported on Monday that cases of the flesh-eating parasitic infection continue to be detected near the United States.
U.S. remains very low. U.S. U.S. border. New World screwworm is a species of parasitic fly that feeds on live tissue and can cause myiasis, which is an infestation of larvae or maggots. It can infest livestock, pets, wildlife, and in rare instances, humans.
A female New World screwworm will lay between 200 and 300 eggs in an open wound of a living host. After eggs hatch, the maggots burrow further into the tissue and cause painful infestations. After feeding for about seven days, larvae drop to the ground, burrow into the soil, and emerge as adult screwworm flies.
New World screwworm is present in countries in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. U.S. Symptoms of New World screwworm infection include skin lesions that don't heal or worsen over time, painful wounds or sores, bleeding from open sores, feeling or seeing maggots in wounds, or a bad odor from the site of the infestation.
There is currently no drug-only cure for New World screwworm infestation. Patients should contact a health care provider immediately if they believe they may be infested or see and feel maggots in a wound or anywhere else in the body. A physician will have to remove the maggots, which may require surgery.
Patients should not try to remove or dispose of the maggots themselves. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns not to throw live maggots in the trash or outside because it could lead to New World screwworm spreading in the area. U.S. In 1966.
U.S. U.S. eradicated screwworm in 1966, the country has been relatively free of the parasite aside from a 2017 outbreak in the Florida Keys. Last year, a case of New World screwworm was detected in a Maryland resident who had recently returned from travel to El Salvador.
