Monday, August 25, 2025
A person in Maryland has been diagnosed with a rare flesh-eating parasite known as the New World screwworm after traveling from Guatemala, marking the first confirmed human case in the US. The New World screwworm, a fly whose larvae burrow into living tissue, primarily affects cattle and other warm-blooded animals but can also infect people in rare cases. It causes severe, sometimes fatal damage if untreated. This is the first confirmed US case since the outbreak began to escalate in Central America and southern Mexico. Map: Spread of Screwworm Fly
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Additional human cases are being reported across Central America. Guatemala has confirmed 16 cases so far in 2025, Belize reported its first-ever case this week, and Honduras has confirmed 166. Other cases have also been documented in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua. Mexican authorities confirmed their 41st case of the year and the first in Yucatn, while most cases in Mexico have been concentrated in Chiapas. The USDA APHIS reported that detections of screwworm have surged dramatically, from an average of 25 cases per year in Panama to more than 6,500 cases in 2023. Since then, the parasite has spread into Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Mexico"north of the biological barrier in Panama that had contained it for decades. The USDA and the State of Texas recently initiated multimillion dollar screwworm eradication programs. Below, an unhealed wound from the screwworm larvae.
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