Doctors Remove Three Live Human Botflies From Woman Who Had Visited The Amazon Jungle

A medical team successfully removed three live human botflies from the eyelid of a 32-year-old woman who was in the Amazon jungle two months prior. The woman, a U.S. native, underwent the surgery at a hospital in India, The Print reported.

The three live human botflies were almost two cm in size. While one was taken out from the right upper eyelid, the second was removed from the back of her neck, and a third was found in her right forearm.

Doctors said the woman visited the emergency department with complaints of swelling in the right upper eyelid as well as inflammation. She also reported occasionally feeling something moving inside her eyelid over the last few weeks.

The woman was in the Amazon jungle two months ago, and noticed a bite on her right upper eyelid only after returning to the U.S. "It started growing and bleeding. I thought it was a poisonous spider bite. There was a small hole in the middle of the bite, and I saw something coming out of the hole," the patient said.

The medical team at a hospital in India's national capital diagnosed her with a rare case of myiasis, a type of tissue infection, in her eye.

"The U.S. national is a traveler and had a history of visiting the Amazon jungle two months back. Suspecting a foreign body from her history of traveling, and noticing movements inside her skin, the diagnosis was done," the team at Fortis Hospital in Delhi said, as quoted by The Print.

According to the Centres For Disease Control And Prevention, myiasis is the infection of a fly larva in human tissue. This is rarely acquired in the U.S., and people typically get the infection when they travel to tropical regions in Africa and South America.

Though the woman had consulted medical professionals in the U.S., the botfly could not be removed. The doctors reportedly prescribed a few symptomatic relief medications and discharged her.

After the diagnosis in India, the woman underwent an emergency surgery that lasted about 15 minutes, during which all the flies burrowed inside her body were successfully removed. The woman was discharged with prescribed symptomatic medicines.

"The doctors here could take the botflies out without the help of anesthesia," the patient said, adding that she appreciated the "pro-active approach" taken by the team.

Had the botflies not been removed, the doctors said it could have caused considerable destruction of tissues resulting in complications such as extensive erosion of the nose, face, and orbit. The condition could have also led to rare meningitis and possibly death.