Teen gets dangerous hookworm infection at the beach

AP Photo / Chris O 'Meara

• Two types of hookworms – one that primarily infects dogs and cats and one that infects humans – can bury themselves in human skin and cause an itchy rash and others. more serious symptoms.
• Memphis teenager Michael Dumas was infected with the type of hookworm that usually infects dogs and cats, causing a painful and itchy rash that has become a skin infection for which he undergoes various treatments since June 2018.
• Kelli Mulhollen Dumas, Michael's mother, shares her story to educate the public so that no one else has to live what her son has gone through.
• Warning: Some images associated with this story are graphic.
  

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If you spend time thinking about parasitic worms, it is likely that you have a dog or cat at home. After all, in America it's much more common for our furry friends to develop parasitic worms than for humans.

But Memphis resident Michael Dumas would have picked up those very unwanted hitchhikers when he visited Pompano Beach, Florida, on a missionary trip.

While there, the 17-year-old and his friends went to the beach and played in the sand. At one point, his mother said, Michael was even buried up to his neck by his friends.

What seemed to be a rather standard beach fun turned out to have quite serious consequences.

In the beginning, the symptoms appeared to be normal insect bites that everyone feels in summer

In June 2018, Michael Dumas was returning from his trip to Pompano Beach when his mother, Kelli Mulhollen Dumas, said she had noticed a bunch of little red bumps on her son's skin. At first, as she told the Washington Post, she thought that they were just mosquito or chigger bites.

But a few days later, Dumas said that "all his behind" had a red itch. At that time, the doctor diagnosed him with a cutaneous migrans larvae, a specific hookworm infection that usually attacks animals rather than humans.

The boy is recovering with medical treatment, but the process has been slow and expensive.

Doctors prescribed both an antibiotic and a pest control, but as Dumas told The Washington Post, the treatment "did not work fast enough" – so she also made an emergency dermatologist appointment.

The dermatologist attempted to use cryotherapy, which generally used to freeze skin lesions. According to Dumas, his son stopped the process after saying that he could "feel it sinking liquid nitrogen".

Dumas wrote in a Facebook post that until here, his son took several medications including the Albenza Pest Control, which she claimed cost her $ 1,356 for six pills – even with a health insurance. He also developed a staph infection, for which he took baths with bleach.

Currently, Dumas hopes his son will be able to get up in his sister's wedding on August 11, where he is scheduled to be a boy of honor according to USA Today.

There is a significant difference between the two types of hookworms that infest most often humans.

Michael is currently recovering from Ancylostoma duodenal infection – the hookworm that most commonly infects animals.

Bobbi Pritt, director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory of the Mayo Clinic Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, told the Washington Post that animal hookworms are unable to adapt to human bodies once They entered.

try to live – hence the wandering and red marks and redness in the human hosts that move under the skin. But this type of hookworm is unable to mature or reproduce in the human body, and they all end up dying like larvae. If it is not treated, the entire process will usually occur in the weeks following the infection of a human host.

Meanwhile, another type of hookworm – Necator americanus, also known as "the American killer" – is an intestinal parasite in humans. They go through your bloodstream, then into your lungs, where they trigger a cough that only propels them toward their ultimate goal. When you spit them out, of course you find some – and they end up going into your small intestine, where they hang on, start sucking your blood and cause real and lasting damage to you and your community.

This type of hookworm can also be conquered and eradicated with prompt and appropriate medical treatment – but this particular species has decimated the health and productivity of the southern United States for hundreds of years.

Through massive public health campaigns, the widespread use of indoor plumbing and most people wearing shoes, this type of hookworm is currently relatively rare in the United States. Unfortunately, it is still prevalent around the world – where it feeds and contributes to perpetuating poverty in infected communities.

But really, you do not want worm type in your body if you can help it – here's how to prevent them from getting in.

Hookworms thrive in hot, humid climates – including beaches. They infect about 740 million people worldwide, according to Popular Science. A 2017 report on Lowndes County, Alabama, revealed at least one rural community in the United States where human hookworms are still endemic.

But as they are no longer a common threat in the United States, many Americans do not think of them when we go abroad, even though we think of other health precautions such as vaccines.

We do not think of them either when they visit American beaches – but we should obviously.

The bad news: There is no vaccine, no repellent spray or other treatments that you can administer before potential exposure to hookworm.

According to Popular Science, the best way to avoid hookworms is to wear sandals while walking on the beach, always sit on a towel – and immediately wash any part of your body that touches the sand with soap and water after exposure.

"I do not want anyone else going through what my son has been through," Dumas told the Washington Post. "I will never walk on the beach again without shoes."

INSIDER reached out to Dumas for comment but did not hear back at the time of this writing.

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