You Must Read This Article If You Are Planning A Tropical Break This Year.
Thank you for reading this article, but you may be thanking me by the time you have finished reading. If you only read the next two paragraphs,and act on the information, you may be saving you and your family a lot of trouble.
1 DO NOT EVER wear damp or wet clothes,especially swimwear of any description. Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime ever in the tropics.
2 If your clothes ever do get damp or wet including swimwear. DO NOT EVER try to dry them outside, on your hotel balcony, washing line,back of a chair, or sunbed or anywhere outside.
Why, because although it is relatively rare in humans. A British woman recently returned to the U.K. from tropical Kenya with what she thought was a mosquito bite, but was actually a rare tropical condition called myiasis.When larvae live and feed on a host.
THE SYMPTOMS are like a small mosquito bite, growing larger, yellow and hard,and becoming more painful as time goes by. Like someone sticking a needle in your arm, pus will be emitted from the bite, and it will start to move, (This is starting to sound like something from the movie Alien.)
THE CAUSE, The female tumbu fly likes to lay its eggs on damp clothing or linen. If these clothes are then worn the eggs penetrate the skin, and after two or three days, the larvae hatch out beneath your skin.after they hatch, they need air, so they start to eat their way out of your body. which is very very painful.The tumbu fly can found anywhere in the tropics from South America and India, through to Australasia and Thailand.
THE REMEDY.To contact a Doctor, so that he can confirm it is not a mosquito bite. The Doctor will then probably refer you to a tropical disease specialist. The only way you can rid yourself of this nasty little parasite is to entice it out of your skin. It has to be lured out by suffocating it: and in its search for air it wriggles out. In Africa they use bacon to lure it out, but at some hospitals in the U.K.; vaseline is plastered all over the area of the bite, then a clear airtight plastic dressing is fixed on top. Then you just have to wait for it to emerge. When the bug at last appears, the surgeon will extract it with a pair of tweezers. Then all you will be left with is a hole in your arm the size of a small pea.
THE PREVENTION. By following tips one and two. Always tumble dry your clothes. And if clothes are dried outside, they should always be ironed, as the heat of the iron will destroy the eggs.
But do not let this put you of your tropical holiday or vacation this year.Myiasis is still a rare occurrence and even rarer if you follow these guidelines. But just in case always make sure you have proper travel insurance with plenty of medical cover.
The author is publisher of, and is a contributor to the website www.findukinsurance.com There you will find lots of unbiased insurance advice about all types of insurance including travel insurance for your tropical holiday. The author also publishes the website tabasun.co.uk A website about the Red sea resorts of Taba and Taba heights in Egypt.
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