One doctor thought the bleeding, strange bumps on Aaron Dallas' head might have been a gnat bite. A specialist thought it was shingles, though both doctors held out the possibility that it was something else.
Then the bumps started moving.
A doctor found five active bot fly larvae living on Dallas' head, near the top of his skull, a few weeks after a mosquito apparently placed them there.
"I'd put my hand back there and feel them moving. I thought it was blood coursing through my head,'' said Dallas, of Carbondale, Colorado, USA.
"I could hear them. I actually thought I was going crazy.''
Dallas likely received the larval infestation on a trip to Belize this summer.
Mosquitoes, stable flies and other insects are used by female bot flies to carry their eggs to the host, in this case Dallas.
"It was weird and traumatic,'' Dallas said. "I would get this pain that would drop me to my knees.''
When the pain got worse, Dallas returned to Dr. Kimball Spence.
"When I saw him again, it was pretty obvious something else was going on,'' said Spence, who could see the spots moving on Dallas' head. "There's an open pit. You see a little activity, not necessarily the larvae, but a fluctuation of the fluid in the pit,'' Spence said.
The parasites, which were living in a pit 2 to 3mm wide, were removed. His wife teases him about it now.
"It's much funnier to everyone else,'' Dallas said. "It makes my stomach turn over. It was cruel.''
Spence said bot fly infections are fairly routine in parts of Central and South America.
一位醫師認為艾倫:達拉斯頭上出血的奇怪腫塊,可能是蚊蟲咬傷。另一位專科醫生則以為是帶狀皰疹,不過兩位都不排除其他病因。
之後那些腫塊竟開始移動了。
一位醫師發現五隻馬蠅幼蟲寄居在達拉斯頭上靠近頭蓋骨頂端,顯然有蚊子在幾星期前,把馬蠅的幼蟲帶到那裡。
而住在卡本代爾的達拉斯說:「我常把手放在那裡感覺它們的活動,還以為是頭上的血液在流動。」
「我可以聽到它們的聲音,還真以為自己快瘋了呢。」
達拉斯可能是今年夏天去貝里斯時,被寄生蟲寄生。
母馬蠅常利用蚊子、刺蠅,和其它昆蟲將幼卵帶給宿主。例如達拉斯的案例即是如此。
達拉斯說:「這真是詭異,而且令人受創,我甚至痛到跪下來。」
當疼痛加劇,達拉斯就再回去找金寶:史班斯醫師。
史班斯醫師說:「當我再見到他時,發現很顯然是有其他的病因。」他還看見達拉斯頭上有小點在活動。
史班斯醫師說:「在頭上有個洞,你可以看到有一點動靜,雖然不見得看得到幼蟲,但看得到有液體在流動。」
那些住在寬兩至三公釐洞裡的寄生蟲都被移除了。他的老婆現在常拿此取笑他。
達拉斯說:「這對其他人來說很好笑,但是卻令我反胃。太慘啦!」
史班斯醫師說,馬蠅的感染在部分中美洲和南美洲地區其實很常見。
(美聯社/翻譯:張愛弟)
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