Woman's nasty find in her forehead after tropical holiday

A woman who returned from a trip to Uganda was shocked to learn she had fly larvae nestled into her skin.

A lump had formed on the 55-year-old British woman’s forehead about nine days after her return, and when she first went to have it treated it was initially diagnosed as an infected bite from an insect, LiveScience reports.

But after she was sent home with antibiotics her symptoms grew worse, and she “returned to the emergency department 3 days later with extensive preseptal periorbital swelling and pain”, the abstract for the BMJ journal about the woman’s case states.

A watery discharge was then found to be coming out of a hole in the lump.

Doctors had reportedly been concerned the issue may have been connected to her trip, so the patient was admitted for additional testing.

It was later determined that the opening was a hole to help the baby fly, or maggot, breathe.

“Occlusive treatment with petroleum jelly was applied and one larva manually extracted and sent to London School of Tropical Medicine for examination,” the abstract for the medical journal read.

“It was identified as Lund’s Fly (Cordylobia rodhaini), a rare species from the rainforests of Africa with only one other case reported in the UK since 2015. “

“Ultrasound imaging identified another larva, necessitating surgical exploration and cleaning.”

According to LiveScience, one of the report’s authors, Dr Farah Shahi, said the maggots were possibly on a damp towel the woman used to wrap her hair in.

It is thought a fly may have laid its eggs on the towel as it had been hanging on a clothes line outside.

The woman remains well and her lesion has healed.