Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: France
Aisha Nozari
A man from France has had fly larvae removed from his eyeball with forceps. Yes, you read that right.
The 53-year-old was admitted to the University Hospital of Saint-Etienne after complaining his right eye had been itching for several hours.
Once there, doctors found ‘more than a dozen mobile, translucent larvae’ on his cornea and in the lining of his eyeball. Is everyone feeling OK? Deep breaths.
The poor, poor man had been enjoying a spot of gardening next to a horse and sheep farm when he felt something ‘fly into his eye’.
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A case article published by The New England Journal of Medicine notes that: “A diagnosis of external ophthalmomyiasis — an infestation of the outer structures of the eye by fly larvae — was made.”
Once the larvae had been pulled from the man’s eye with METAL TONGS, they were identified as Oestrus ovis - aka sheep bot flies. It’s all a bit much, isn’t it?
According to Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development: “Nasal bots are often found in sheep and goats but do not cause significant problems and owners are usually unaware of their presence. However bot flies occasionally target humans, dogs and cats.”
Unfortunately, the fellow’s ordeal was not quite wrapped up, as ‘the larvae were numerous’ and ‘can cause abrasions with their cephalic oral hooks’ (hooks!) so he was prescribed ten days of antibiotics.
Thankfully, in what might just be the most-deserved happy ending of all time, his symptoms had cleared up by the time he visited the doctor again ten days later.
Right, time for a cuppa and a lie down before we bring some more deflating facts your way.
It’s a pleasure to report that ophthalmomyiasis only makes up for around 5 percent of human myiasis (the infection of a fly larvae in human tissue) cases, according to Science Direct.
The NHS has an entire page dedicated to the infection, aptly named ‘worms in humans’.
A warning on the health service’s website rather terrifyingly warns that ‘some types of worms can infect people’ but does then note ‘most worm infections are not serious and can be easily treated with medicine’. Swings and roundabouts.
How to know whether or not you have a creepy crawly living inside your body? Don’t sweat it, the symptoms are pretty easy to spot.
For example, you might simply ‘find a large worm in your poo’, or maybe you’ll have ‘a red, itchy, worm-shaped rash on your skin’.
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