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The curious case of a lump on the head of a 55-year-old woman was documented in a medical journal after surgeons discovered that it was actually larvae of flies that had been encrusted to him during a trip to Uganda.
According to Fox News, the woman, whose name was not revealed, initially sought treatment nine days after her return to the UK, reported LiveScience.
The puffiness was identified as a suspected insect bite and she was sent home with antibiotics, but she returned three days later with additional swelling and pain, according to the report published in BMJ case reports.
The woman was initially treated for an infected insect bite, but three days later, on her return, the doctors discovered an opening near the root of her hair. Image: BMJ 2019 Case Reports
This time, the doctors discovered an opening in the center of the mbad with an aqueous outflow.
According to Dr. Farah Shahi, an infectious disease specialist at the York Teaching Hospital in the UK, who treated the woman, the opening was actually a breathing hole for a fly baby or a worm.
To confirm the diagnosis, the doctors applied Vaseline to the area and "a larva was manually extracted and sent to the London School of Tropical Medicine for review".
An ultrasound revealed a second fly still buried in the woman's head. Image: BMJ 2019 Case Reports
The authors of the report stated that the larva was identified as the Lund fly, a rare species from the tropical rain forests of Africa.
Subsequent ultrasounds revealed that another larva remained on the woman's forehead, pushing her to undergo surgery to remove her.
Dr. Shahi told LiveScience that a fly or a fly probably laid eggs on a towel that the woman used to wrap her hair, then sank into her forehead.
The woman has since been cured and the report's authors noted only one other case recorded in the UK since 2015.
This article was originally published on Fox News and has been reproduced with permission.
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