Couple Gets Flesh-Eating Parasites on Vacation & the Details Are Horrifying

cafemom ^ | January 11, 2013 at 2:08 PM | Jacqueline Burt on

[BenLurkin]

Of all the maladies I hope never to be afflicted with, and there are many of those, any sickness with the term "flesh-eating" in its name is way, way at the tippy-top of my list. The very thought makes my skin crawl. (Ha! No, really.) Gaaah! After last summer's streak of flesh-eating bacteria cases, I'd already pretty much resolved to never ever swim in a lake ever again. But after hearing about the flesh-eating parasites a young Australian couple recently became infected with on a "dream trip" to the Amazon, I'm pretty much resolved to -- well, I've never been to the Amazon, and I sure as hell ain't making any plans now.

Seriously, what happened to Ally Vagg and Bryan Williams is so incredibly horrifying, I really have to warn anyone without a supremely strong stomach to stop reading now. After the jump, things get ugly. Fast.

[PGR88]

No photos?

[demshateGod]

Thankfully. Reminds me of the most horribly creature created. The Surinam Toad.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Surinam_toad_%28DFdB%29.jpg

[ArrogantBustard]

That's an image of the adult Botfly.

I'm not going to post images of the larvae, because ...

Well ...

I'm just not.

Web-search ... you'll find 'em.

They're nasty.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Venice Carnival

[Jonty30]

I’ve seen pictures similar to what this couple got, and they are horrifying to look at and recommend that nobody take a look, unless you want to be creeper out for days.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Just think with minor adaptations the Bot Fly and its larvae might just be able to survive in parts of the United States. That would certainly give an added dimension to the vacuous liberal wet dream: "Our Diversity is Our Strength!"

[Raebie]

bkmk

[MeganC]

Looks kind of cute, really.

[DuncanWaring]

Myself, I’d prefer “flesh-eating” to “hemorhagic”.

[GenXteacher]

Moral of the story? Don’t take vacations in 3rd World cesspools.

[rstrahan]

Doesn’t have to be 3rd world. We lost a cousin to this stuff. Took her hands and lower half of her legs before they stopped it, but ultimately took her life due to long term damage. And she never left the states. Think she picked it up in a hospital in the ER for a minor problem.

[demshateGod]

Don’t know what that means.

[doorgunner69]

While I was doing some field work in Panama out in the rain forest, the local guys kept bugging me about not wearing a hat. Hate hats but am bald.

They showed me some scars they had, and explained this fly and it's nasty little habit. I started wearing a hat and constantly swiping my hands over my exposed arms and neck.....

[KevinB]

I think this is different than the flesh-eating bacteria we’ve heard about. The larvae will feed on one’s skin until it gets big enough to emerge, but I don’t think it kills people or causes amputation of limbs. It is very high on the grossness scale, though.

[ArrogantBustard]

Does DEET help with this critter?

How about DDT?

[Secret Agent Man]

Botflies.

They are more commonly dealt with on animals. It may cause people to be grossed out but you do need a vet (or doctor) to get in there and remove them. Safest thing to do.

[bboop]

Your cousin got flesh-eating bacteria? Here in the US? How terrible. A friend was a missionary in Truk; he said the tropics are very hard on the body.

[doorgunner69]

I would guess DEET would keep the bugs off your skin.

The guys said the killed them by smearing Vaseline over the wound opening to cut off the oxygen and they grab the little bugger when he would poke his head up for a breath.

[trisham]

I believe that we will retire right here in New England. 3 feet of snow? That’s nothing!

[Hot Tabasco]

became infected with on a "dream trip" to the Amazon

When my niece was in med school back in the 1990's, she was going to take a trip down the Amazon with a classmate who was from Brazil. Prior to the trip, she was supposed to have a number of innoculations to protect her from the diseases that are prevalent there and ultimately she never went......

The amazon is another planet and anyone who thinks it's a wonderful, pristine rainforest filled with glorious creatures and wondefull butterflies is NUTS! There's diseases and insects there that will kill you or make you deathly ill that haven't even been discovered yet..........

[Hot Tabasco]

until they get a clean bill of health from Bolivian doctors (hopefully in another month or so), Australia won't take them back!

[Hot Tabasco]

Panama out in the rain forest

I spent a little over two years in Panama while in the Army. Its JUNGLE, not rainforest.......

[Vendome]

I’ve had boils, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever(weird, as I as in Oklahoma), scabies and few other things I picked up out in the woods.

Just gotta deal with them.

[Rebelbase]

Botfly larvae removal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23eimVLAQ2c

[darth]

I had a friend whose wealthy family purchased a tract of Amazon rainforest and paid him a tidy sum to conserve it.

Every year he got an all-expense-paid vacation to Brazil to inspect the tract.

He caught a rare virus that no doctor had ever seen before. It ate his heart and he died.

Lots of biodiversity down there!

[yldstrk]

it looks like a bumble bee!

[Calvin Locke]

Its JUNGLE, not rainforest.......

Cue Jennifer Aniston's voiced character on South Park..."

[dfwgator]

There’s a place called the rainforest that truly sucks a$$.....

[Hot Tabasco]

Botfly larvae removal

You're out of your mind if you think we're gonna watch that........

[Bigg Red]

Yet another reason for me to have no desire to go to the Amazon.

[Bigg Red]

Don’t know what that means.

&&
He/she is “bookmarking” the post to read later, thus “bkmk”.

[csmusaret]

Voodoo Mama’s Hot Sauce will do em in...http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Yn0ey0vePwI&vq=medium

[Revolting cat!]

Where did they vacation? (No time to read the article.) Washington D.C.?

[Amberdawn]

They are already here, as every horse person knows. They lay eggs on horses legs (mostly) and horses lick them off. They migrate from there into the horses stomach, where they attach to their stomach lining, looking like ovate pasta, sometimes killing the horse if left untreated.

[Amberdawn]

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/horse_bot_fly.htm

[MisterArtery]

I knew a guy from Houston that went wade fishing in the Gulf a few years ago and got the flesh-eating bacteria. He had several joints amputated and eventually croaked. He had an open wound, scratch, whatever, on his leg that allowed the nastiness to invade his system. Terrible way to die, in a hospital bed while having joints removed.

His name was Mel and he was a good guy and tavern friend. Any jokes about this are not funny (not you) and you don’t have to be in some crappy part of the world. This guy was fishing off Freeport, Texas, south of Galveston.

[Darnright]

Those things sound like warbles. They are fly larvae that get on kittens, rabbits and sometimes puppies. They cause a huge welt on the animal’s body and you can see the larvae wiggling around through the air hole it opens in the welt.

Not for the squeemish.

[Ozark Tom]

Turpentine kills/ drives maggots out of a wound.

[Osage Orange]

I think you are confused..........

[Shimmer1]

Vendome, you looked good...until now.

:D

[SaraJohnson]

Thanks for the warning. I’m not looking. I watch bloody movie scenes with my eyes closed and fingers in my ears.

[Vendome]

Thanks for noticing. ;-)

[goat granny]

I was surprised that Alaska has a rainforest...Interesting trip...

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Thanks for the information. What area of the U.S.A. are they found?

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Thanks for the information. What area of the U.S.A. are they found?

[Bigg Red]

So sorry for your loss. Yes, it is a terrible way to die.

When I am gardening, I try to be extra careful with any cuts I incur because of the risk of infection from many types of bacteria. I think it is possible to pick up one of these nasty Strep strains from soil, but I am not sure.

[Amberdawn]

I live in Pa., so I imagine they are pretty much extant in the whole of the U.S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botfly

[Amberdawn]

These seems to be the areas where the HUMAN botfly is endemic. Like lice, they appear to be host specific.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatobia_hominis