Dermatobia hominis myiasis in humans in Trinidad

ABSTRACT

Myiasis is caused by larvae of flies belonging to 3 families of Diptera, the Oestridae, Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae, which feed on living and dead tissue. Members of the first 2 families are the main cause of human myiasis in Latin American (HALL, 1995). In Central and South America, cases of human myiasis resulting from the oestrid or warble fly, Dermatobia hominis L., are well documented (PRASAD &BECK, 1969; SANCHO, 1988). However, this type of myiasis was thought not to occur in humans in the islands of the Caribbean (RAWLINS, 1988), probably because of its low incidence or low rate of detection. Only 2 human cases of myiasis due to D. hominis were reported between 1940 and 1984 (RAJU et al., 1986). In contrast, myiasis due to Cochliomyia hominivorax Coq., which is known to parasitize humans and other mammals, is well documented throughout South and Central America as well as in Jamaica and Trinidad (RAWLINS et al., 1983) and Cuba (FAO, 1996) in the Caribbean region. During 1988 our interest in human myiasis was stimulated when a specimen of D. hominis was brought to the laboratory for identification. Following this initial case, numerous other cases were detected among the Trinidad population. In this paper we report 20 cases of D. hominis parasitism which have been detected in Trinidad over the last 8 years.(AU)