Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #545

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
A man became 'pregnant'
with flies after dozens of larvae hatched in his eye.
Doctors were forced to use tri- ceps to remove the botflies which were found squirming around his cornea, according to a report in New England Journal of Medicine.
The 53-year-old patient had gone to hospital after complaining of an itching sensation that refused to go away.
The man, from France, told doc- tors he had been gardening near a farm that had horse and sheep
before
feeling something enter his eye, the Metro reports.
Upon further examination,
medics discovered ‘more than a dozen mobile, translu- cent larvae’ in the whites of his eye,
the
membrane lining the eyelids and also his cornea - the outer layer of the eye.
Botflies, also known as Oestridae, grow inside animal's flesh, usually
sheep or other livestock. The flies lay up to 500 eggs on mam- mals or places where they sleep - and can even end up in the gut if licked.
The man was diagnosed with external ophthal- momyiasis or rather 'an infesta- tion of the outer structures of the eye by fly larvae', according to the University Hospital of Saint- Etienne.
Doctors used for- ceps to pluck each one out, but luckily the man was completely recovered by his check-up appoint- ment 10 days later.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Man Becomes 'Pregnant' With Flies After 'Infestation' of Squirming Larvae Hatch In Eye