Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.cmaj.ca/earlyreleases/26nov10-jiggers-outbreak-in-uganda.dtl
Jiggers outbreak in Uganda
An outbreak of tungiasis, a tropical parasitic skin disease commonly known as jiggers, has killed at least 20 Ugandans and taken host in more than 20 000 people in just two months.
Jiggers is caused by the female sand flea, Tunga penetrans, which burrows into the skin of its host ? usually on the feet, but occasionally on the lips, buttocks and even eyelids ? and undergoes hypertrophy within a day or two, eventually expanding to the size of a pea (www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/EID/vol9no8/pdfs/03-0041.pdf). The flea?s hindquarters remain in contact with the air, providing an avenue for breathing, defecating and expelling eggs, while creating a painful lesion on the host?s skin which often serves as an entry point for pathogenic microorganisms. Over the course of about three weeks, the flea will expel as many as 200 eggs into the environment and then die in situ, leaving a black crust covering a lesion containing the dead flea, which is eventually sloughed off from the epidermis. If left untreated, patients can die of secondary infections such as tetanus and gangrene, according to the CDC...
Jiggers outbreak in Uganda
An outbreak of tungiasis, a tropical parasitic skin disease commonly known as jiggers, has killed at least 20 Ugandans and taken host in more than 20 000 people in just two months.
Jiggers is caused by the female sand flea, Tunga penetrans, which burrows into the skin of its host ? usually on the feet, but occasionally on the lips, buttocks and even eyelids ? and undergoes hypertrophy within a day or two, eventually expanding to the size of a pea (www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/EID/vol9no8/pdfs/03-0041.pdf). The flea?s hindquarters remain in contact with the air, providing an avenue for breathing, defecating and expelling eggs, while creating a painful lesion on the host?s skin which often serves as an entry point for pathogenic microorganisms. Over the course of about three weeks, the flea will expel as many as 200 eggs into the environment and then die in situ, leaving a black crust covering a lesion containing the dead flea, which is eventually sloughed off from the epidermis. If left untreated, patients can die of secondary infections such as tetanus and gangrene, according to the CDC...