Baby boy has op for 'maggots'
2006-02-26 22:48
Pretoria - A baby boy from Clubview in Centurion has become one of the latest hosts of the tumbu fly after at least 17 of the fly larvae had penetrated his skin.
Cilliers van Heerden, aged eight months, had to be anaesthetised on Friday for a doctor to surgically remove the larvae.
His father, Karel, said on Sunday: "Initially, it looked like mosquito bites all over his body. Later, the bite marks turned red with a black dot in the centre."
The black dot is the larva's protruding air tube through which it breathes while sitting snugly under the skin, a specialist told Beeld.
A traditional cure is to put petroleum jelly on the spot in order to smother the larva.
Cilliers' mother, Mandi, grew up in Malelane, where the fly was also known as the mango fly.
Can grow to 15mm
It usually was attracted by the smell of urine and faeces, and liked to lay its eggs in washing on the line. The larvae grew to 15mm after crawling under the skin.
Cilliers' washing, however, was hung up inside to dry, and it remained a mystery how the larvae managed to penetrate even his scalp.
The Van Heerdens said on Sunday they were aware of two other people who had been treated at Unitas Hospital.
Two dogs, a Yorkshire terrier from Brooklyn, and a Maltese from Centurion, who were treated at her grooming parlour, also had been infected.
Van Heerden said: "People don't believe it when we tell them the fly also occurs in Pretoria.
"My father-in-law wanted to warn us with a Beeld newspaper cutting about the fly, but it was already too late."
They first took Cilliers to their doctor, who squeezed out one of the larvae, before suggesting that the others be removed under anaesthetic.
His mother removed another larva from his scalp on Sunday.
She had removed three larvae from between the toes of the Yorkshire terrier in her salon on Thursday.
Then, she saw a Maltese with a larva in its cheek on Saturday.
Several cases a week
Cilliers' father heard about a boy with an abscess in his cheek at Unitas Hospital last week.
On Saturday, an elderly woman, who had been wrongly diagnosed for a spider bite last week, also was found to have a larva under her skin.
Beeld was told of at least one child who was treated for tumbu fly larvae at Fearie Glen Hospital and another one at Garsfontein.
According to a nurse, between two and five cases a week were treated for larvae at Medicross Clinic in Pretoria North.