Man 'being eaten alive by maggots'

Herald Sun ^ | 14 August 2006

[Aussie Dasher]

AN elderly Hong Kong man is being treated in hospital after doctors found he was being eaten alive by maggots, health chiefs said today.

They said the 67-year-old could have been gnawed to death by the parasites had he not been rushed into care.

The grisly affliction is known as human myiasis, a rare disease that results from flies infesting wounds or sores.

Usually a problem for older people who have trouble looking after themselves, the flies lay their eggs in fresh or weeping wounds and sometimes even in the mouth, nose and ears.

The hatched larvae then feed from the rotting flesh, quickly spreading through the body.

In the latest case in Hong Kong, the maggots infested a number of cuts on the man's face.

Health officials urged carers and staff at homes for the elderly to be alert to signs of the disease, which has so far this year been detected in seven other people.

[Aussie Dasher]

This COULD explain Nancy Pelosi...

Enjoy your breakfast, folks!!! :-)

[keithtoo]

I thought that maggots only ate dead flesh.

[TimesDomain]

The maggots are what kept the poor man alive. They only eat the dead/rotting flesh.

[cripplecreek]

The maggots probably saved his life.

[JRios1968]

Enjoy your breakfast, folks!!! :-)

Oh, yeah?? Here's my reply to you!

[Gingersnap]

Maggot infestations are a serious health problem. When maggots are used therapeutically, they come from one of three types and they are removed and replaced within a certain number of hours.

While maggots selectively eat necrotic flesh, they also make flesh rot by excreting enzymes to kill it.

Wild maggots feasting for days on a wound will always cause tissue destruction and infections.

[sully777]

There are quacks that write books on using maggots for cancer therapy along with leeches. There are people that apply said quackery. The results are nasty and predictable.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

Many lives and limbs were saved as a result of discovering that maggots only ate dead tissue. How can it be that this man was nearly killed, by maggots who only eat dead tissue? The person who wrote this story, has their facts a bit twisted. Me thinks there's a deliberate attempt to cover up something...

[Sopater]

Although medical treatment with maggots can be benificial, it's not always desirable when it happens naturally.

Naturally occurring maggot infestations can of course be very harmful. In some fly species, the larval forms feed upon live tissue as well as decaying material, and the larvae can be a big problem. For example, the screw worm fly (see picture at left) is sometimes called the 'flesh-eater'. About twice the size of typical house fly, it lays its eggs on the edges of wounds, or in the mucous membranes of body openings. The newly hatched larvae burrow downwards into the tissue, causing massive tissue damage and sometimes death.

from: MAGGOTS - Warning: some graphic images on this page...

[Jeff Chandler]

Man 'being eaten alive by maggots'

At first I thought this was an article about President Bush's relationship with the press.