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- The Maryland Department of Health gave an update on the first-ever American to be infected with the New World screwworm.
- The patient contracted it after traveling to a country experiencing an outbreak of the parasite, officials said
- Although humans are susceptible to the parasite, livestock are its primary host, and the screwworm can kill a cow in two weeks
The Maryland patient who was the first-ever American to be infected with the “horrific” flesh-eating parasite, New World screwworm, has recovered.
“The Maryland resident has recovered from the infection, and the investigation confirmed there is no indication of transmission to any other individuals or animals. Currently, the risk to public and animal health in Maryland from this introduction is very low,” the Maryland Department of Health said in a statement to PEOPLE, adding that the resident “had returned from a country currently experiencing a NWS outbreak.”
The resident had recently traveled to El Salvador, CBS News reported.
Screwworm is actually a fly that gets its name from how its larva infects a host. It’s a “flesh-eating parasite,” Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told NPR. As he explained, the fly lays its eggs on livestock, like cattle. Then, he says, “the larva does exactly what the name would suggest. It screws or bores into the flesh of our cattle and, in essence, eats the animal from the inside out. It is a horrific parasite.”
The fly has been migrating north from South America — and while it can, and does, infect humans, livestock are its primary host. The Maryland case concerned cattle producers who claimed they weren’t informed of the infection promptly, Reuters reported.
It can kill a cow within two weeks, The New York Times reported.
The only way to stop a screwworm infestation is by dropping millions of flies that have been bred to be sterile on areas where the parasite has taken hold, entomologist Edwin Burgess explained to NPR.
The flies are made sterile through radiation. Then, “they take just the males, and then they package them up and fly them over large areas and drop these little packets out of planes. And then those adult male flies mate with the females,” which only mate once in their lifetime.
It’s a way to “crash” the population, Burgess explained.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced plans to build a fly sterilizing facility at Moore Air Force Base in Edinburg, Texas. It could produce 300 million sterile flies a week.
A screwworm infection is indeed “very painful,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control explains. It causes unexplained but painful wounds or sores that worsen over time and may bleed.
Those infected may feel or see maggots moving in the wound. Treatment generally involves surgery to remove the infected area.
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