Flesh-eating screwworms feast on humans in Mexico; human cases top 500

According to a July surveillance report from Mexico's Ministry of Health, human cases of the flesh-eating screwworm fly have topped five hundred since the parasite reinvaded the country in 2024. A study this week in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases examined over two hundred confirmed cases from April twenty twenty-five through March twenty twenty-six and found the infestation pace increasing, with six deaths reported among those cases. The fly lays its eggs in open wounds and orifices, where the hatching maggots feed on living tissue.

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