The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday reported the first human case in the United States of travel-associated New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite, from an outbreak-affected country. - REUTERS
00:00The U.S. has confirmed the first human case in the United States of travel-associated New World Screw Worm.
00:08It involved a patient who returned from travel to El Salvador, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew G. Nixon in an email to Reuters.
00:19Earlier, Reuters had reported that beef industry sources said last week that a case of New World Screw Worm had been confirmed in a person in Maryland who had traveled from Guatemala.
00:31Nixon did not address the discrepancy on the source of the human case.
00:35The parasite eats cattle and other warm-blooded animals alive, and an outbreak has escalated and moved northward from Central America and Southern Mexico since late last year.
00:48South Dakota's state veterinarian told Reuters on Sunday she was notified of the case within the last week, but complained that officials at the CDC weren't forthcoming at all about the information.
01:02Screwworms are parasitic flies whose females lay eggs and wounds on any warm-blooded animal.
01:08Once the eggs hatch, hundreds of screwworm larvae use their sharp mouths to borrow through living flesh, eventually killing their hosts if left untreated.
01:19They rarely infect humans, and treatment is onerous, involving removing hundreds of larvae and thoroughly disinfecting wounds.
01:28Screwworms were eradicated from the United States in the 1960s,
01:31when researchers began releasing sterilized male screwworm flies that mate with wild female screwworms to produce infertile eggs.
01:41The USDA has estimated a screwworm outbreak could cost the economy in Texas, the biggest U.S. cattle-producing state,
01:48about $1.8 billion in livestock deaths, labor costs, and medication expenses.
01:54The U.S. typically imports over a million cattle from Mexico a year to fatten in feedlots and process into beef.
02:02The Maryland case, and lack of transparency around it, could also present a political challenge for U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins,
02:12who pledged repeatedly to keep screwworm out of the country.
02:16Authorities have set traps and sent mounted officers along the border,
02:21but it has faced criticism from some cattle producers and market analysts for not acting sooner and pursuing increased fly production.
02:30For now, the sole operating plant producing sterile screwworms is in Panama City.
02:36New facilities in Texas that Rollins announced in June would need two to three years to come online.
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