Burying yourself in the sand on the beach can be very dangerous

What we are going to tell you should not happen to you, in fact, it is possible that you can continue to bury yourself in the sand of the beach if it is the 39, one of your favorite hobbies. However, it does not hurt to know that if you are unlucky, you may end up with hundreds of parasites in your body.

Apparently, the story took place a few weeks ago, when Michael, a 17-year-old boy, returned from his parents after spending the day on a Florida beach. A few days later, the young man began to develop a series of red spots on the skin, at the level of the feet.

At first, they thought they were mosquitoes, but in the following weeks, the protuberances increased. It was not just on the feet, they had reached his buttocks, Michael had his body covered with red marks from the waist down, which doctors later identified as hookworms, a type of parasite (a nematode worm ) that can infect both animals as well as humans. As the mother explained to the Washington Post:

The doctor confirmed that it was skin larvae. I can not help but emphasize how traumatic it is for a teenager – and his mother – to know that there are worms that live in his body. It was not only my son, although he paid the price, several companions contracted the parasite after visiting Pompano Beach

How were they infected? It turns out that hookworms spread through the faeces of animals or humans that have the parasite, and people can get them just by walking barefoot on the sand or soil that has already been contaminated, according to the CDC.

Michael, coincidentally, was buried until the neck in the sand.

The young man's mother explained to the Post that when the doctor found the parasite, the first thing he did was administer an antibiotic and a pest, but the drug " was not working soon enough "so they went to see a dermatologist in early July. The dermatologist used cryotherapy, a treatment where liquid nitrogen is commonly used to "freeze" skin lesions. According to the mother:

During treatment, my son told me to tell the doctor to stop, because he felt that he could feel that he was leaking from liquid nitrogen. It was unpleasant, more than unpleasant. "

Apparently, there are two main types of hookworms: human and animal or zoonotic.For the medical specialist Bobbi Pritt, both types can be passed on to people, and this is produced in the same way: animals or humans infected with the parasite defecate in the sand or soil and, because their excrement carries the eggs of the parasite, the soil becomes contaminated.

Once in the soil, eggs become larvae, or hookworms that have not reached maturity, and when people come into contact with them, they can penetrate the skin.The results vary depending on the type of hookworm. humans, "once inside the body, migrate to the bloodstream and install in the intestine.

In contrast, hookworms of" animals "can not be safe. adapt to the human body, so that the larvae do not never reach the person's intestines. When this occurs, these larvae, which are microscopic, wander through the person's skin, causing these red wavy marks, trying, though they can not, to leave, grow or reproduce. According to Pritt, " normally the larvae eventually die ."

The teenager had this last type of worm, and while he is recovering from the painful sick, the mother issued the statement next on Facebook as a warning:

Michael went to Miami on June 20th. He 's buried in the sand to have fun and it' s become our nightmare. Four other people contracted a parasitic infection, hookworms, from Pompano beach. Michael has the worst case, by far. He had to take Clindamyacin, Ivermectin, a dose of steroids, and Albenza, which cost $ 1,356 for 6 pills (yes, it's safe and yes, I had to pay for it). But you can get them for $ 0.30 per pill in Honduras. Thank you, FDA. We went to the pediatrician 4 times, to a dermatologist and we have a follow-up appointment today. Michael suffers and it is horrible. Never bury yourself in the sand or let your kids do it! Incidentally, to avoid potential infection, the CDC recommends " not to walk barefoot in areas where hookworm is common and where there may be human faecal contamination of the soil ]". [The Washington Post]