Maggots in the human flesh because of a mosquito bite.

Vancouver, Canada. Twenty-eight-year-old Kyrsten Jensen lives in Vancouver Canada. She has a career in medical technology. In early March, Kyrsten has just returned from a trip. When she was getting ready for work, she feel bitten by mosquito. About a quarter inch in diameter red inflamed skin but was in a weird spot; it was an inch in a bit from the bikini line. Kyrsten not worry about mosquito bites, she would still go to the office as usual.

But the next morning she notices something peculiar about the bite. It was a little bit different than any other night had before. This one had a little hole on the top. The hole is about the size of the head of a pin. That was a bit strange because mosquito bite don't have holes on top. But she didn't think too much of it.

Later in the day Kyrsten finds herself in a moment situation was sitting at work and skin was getting really itchy and she was thing to scratch. The bite was not healing at all. Next day in the morning when she in the shower she looks the bite was pretty inflamed. She was looking maybe this is not just a regular mosquito bite maybe this is just a simple ingrown hair.

But a few days later when she was walking down the street suddenly there's a stabbing pain and I was incapacitated. There’s something completely going wrong with this. Is not just standard ingrown hair. When she finally was able to stand up and walk a little bit further and about three minutes later is happened again.

A few days later Kirsten's appointment with the doctor and explained a stabbing pain that she had. And he said that's not normal. The doctor thought it was just an ingrown hair that got infected. To confirm his suspicions the doctor recommends an invasive procedure. Cut it a little bit and sees what’s coming up. But after that, nothing is coming out. It’s just clear fluid. Nothing came out of it. As a precaution the doctor puts Kirsten on a course of antibiotics.

Three days later, Kirsten checks the cut. But he was shocked when she saw something white on top it’s seems like something moved. She is horrified. But she thinks maybe not seeing something correctly and calls the Doctor. She was thinking just being paranoid. The doctor said keep taking the antibiotics and doctors put a bandage on the wound and send Kirsten home.

After a sleepless night, she staggers into the living room and going to take another look. She lifts the bandage off and see clearly retracts into her legs. There was no hallucination this time. It clearly retracted. It was there and gone quickly. She freaking out.

She gets back to the hospital. There Dr. Sheldon Glazer (Royal Columbian Hospital) takes on her case. The doctor cannot see anything move from the wound. He asks where you have been traveling recently Dr. Glazer diagnosis she had parasite living inside. She had a botfly larva

Botfly larva is a maggot that drives under the skin. Inside Kirsten's body the maggot burrows into the tissue under her skin. There it feeds on blood and living cells. And grows in size. To prevent itself for being pulled out, the maggot uses a set of jagged spines that hook onto Kirsten's flesh. Leading to irritation and stabbing pain.

Dr. Glazer tells Kirsten there's a natural way to get rid of botflies eventually the botfly will exit on its own about six to twelve weeks. But Kirsten is unwilling to wait for the creature to crawl out on its own. So Dr. Sheldon Glazer suggests another way to extract the maggot.

We cover the wound with petroleum jelly that for the airtight dressing on top of the petroleum jelly and keep that down. Kirsten waits for the parasite to die about 24 hours. After that, Dr. Glazer removes the dressing. There was a little bit of a tubular bit of maggot that was protruding from the top of the slump. We grasp this little bit of tubular maggot in and pulled on it. So much pain because it was very sharp and the maggot diameter is a little bit larger than the top of the wound. Finally the maggot came out.

Dr. Dan Riskin (Biologist) says that the botfly is so amazing. Is it unusual reproductive strategy. The botfly hijacks mosquito in mid-flight and lays its eggs on the mosquito body with special glue. When the mosquitoes bite a mammalian, the heats from the mammals body cause the glue to melt the eggs fall onto the skin and hatch into larvae enter the host body through a hair follicle or mosquito bite. Between five and 12 weeks later they crawling transform into adult.

Today Kirsten has fully recovered from her wound with the botfly and despite this experience continues to travel the globe. But she will definitely be sure to wear insect repellent at all times

human botflies are native to Mexico in Central and South America traveling in these regions the best way to avoid the botfly maggot and other mosquito-borne infections is to wear deep based insect repellent on all its most parts of the skin

Valley Fever: Dangerous Diseases Caused by Fungi Coccidioides Immitis

Kyleigh and Vandi Cooyar

Oakland California. Kyleigh and Vandi Cooyar live on the outskirts of Oakland California. They have been married now for 13 years. Vandi works for aircraft leasing company while Kyleigh stays at home with a couple's two children ten-year-old Ava and seven-year-old Callen. As a family they love spending time outdoors like to go to the beach or hiking.

One sunny day at July, Kyleigh and her children are enjoying the weekend getaway at a resort in Palm Springs. But she fell some pain in pelvic area she think maybe that time of the month and that would probably go away. However by the next morning the pain and swelling and Kyleigh stomach had increased.

When she was in the hotel room that she stomach was getting bigger. Sometimes happen when she have menstrual cycle. But when she drives on the way home condition get worsens. When she gets home Vandi see that her wife was not feeling well. He seen Kyleigh have a rash and suggest going to urgent care. But Kyleigh just take a rest. The next morning she's horrified by what she finds. She had a rash all over body. She was scared that something was seriously wrong

Vandi takes her wife to the nearest emergency room to discover the source of Kyleigh's abdominal swelling. Doctors carry out a full body exam. It looks like I was about five months pregnant. In fact one of the first thing doctor tested gynecological conditions but the pregnancy test is negative so doctors turn their attention to Kyleigh’s rash. They perform a biopsy to check for an allergic reaction. But results reveal nothing unusual. Doctors admit Kyleigh to the hospital for further testing. Because of the unusual swelling they scheduled for a colonoscopy, when the procedure starts, Kyleigh quickly senses something is wrong because the scope would not go far enough to be able to see anything.

Doctors are puzzled by what causing the swelling. Over the next two weeks they run average of tasks they get every kind of test like a cat’s scan, MRI blood test and other. But doctor still didn't have any result. It was a scary experience see Kyleigh completely hopeless, emotionally, being down. The fact that nobody knew what was happening to her.

Doctors decide to do an ultrasound of stomach area. They saw that there was a bit of fluid floating around in there. To find out what the fluid is, the doctors need sample. They brought out a huge long needle it's probably about 12 inches long. It was terrified. They get the yellow fluid for sample and a few days later the results come in. The doctor diagnosed that she get infection because VALLEY FEVER.

Valley fever is an infection caused by the fungus Coccidioides Immitis. Inside Kyleigh body, spores of the fungus invade her lungs when they grow and multiply. As an infection spread it that causes like fever and other flu symptoms

Dr. Dan Riskin (Biologist) says that one of the things that makes valley fever so dangerous its ability to evade the immune system using an amazing trick. Once they're in the body before it's warm up and then they change shape. This process is called dimorphism.

Dr. John Galgiani (UA Valey Fever Center for Excellence) has studied valley fever for the past three decades and knows the risks associated with the disease. In most cases we get over it the small percentage of people has complications and one of them is it straight through the bloodstream.

Doctors explained to Kyleigh this force of the fungus have infected her pelvic cavity. The disease has also spread your skin, triggering a rash. But doctors have more worrying for timely the fungus even spread to her brain causing a condition known as valley fever meningitis. The worst complication entries it essentially kills all people within 2 years

Kyleigh has just been diagnosed with valley fever. She's now facing a battle to save her life. To stop the spread of the disease, doctors prescribe a powerful recipe for the most serious infections. She needed to be treated aggressively and the drugs don't always work. Kyleigh takes the medication every day. And a week later Kyleigh is finally sent home. She was really happy to be back with her kids and husband.

The Coccidioides fungus is commonly found in the desert soils of the southwestern United States as well as parts especially in South America. If contaminated soil has disturbed, it’s can release fungal spores into the air. Anyone's who inhale them get infection.

For several months she slowly flashed back to what made him sick. Highly suspect she taught valley fever during a family trip in central California. At the time she was traveling through the San Joaquin Valley the area where the disease was first identified. She got stopped on the freeway because roadwork. It was really dusty. She get stop for about an hour and a half. All you have to do is breathe and you can get valley fever.

Kyleigh has undergone multiple hospitalizations to treat the illness and today for health has dramatically improved. Unfortunately the treatments don't kill the fungus but to prevent the infection from attorney just take a mild form of the antifungal medication for the rest of she life.

It's very difficult to avoid inhaling the calculated fungus. The CDC recommends that people who are at risk for severe valley fever like people with weakened immune systems to avoid the area endemic regions.