Woman returns from exotic Caribbean holiday with most horrific illness – that is only usually found in dogs – Mirror.co.uk

A woman who returned from an exotic beach holiday in the Caribbean was horrified to discover that a parasitic worm had travelled home with her - and was burrowing under her skin.

The 45-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, had felt perfectly healthy after flying home from her relaxing break.

But two weeks later she had developed a raised, itchy rash on her knee.

After initially ignoring the rash, she eventually consulted her doctor, who referred her straight to hospital .

Medics there said they knew exactly what the rash was - a parasitic infection known as cutaneous larva migrans.

The infection is extremely rare, and is caused by a parasitic hookworm that only usually affects dogs and cats.

Images of the woman's rash show red, snaking lines across her knee, in what emergency medicine physician Dr. Chaiya Laoteppitaks, from the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, described as a "textbook example" of the infection.

The wavy lines are the 'trail' left behind by the worm as it burrows beneath the skin, according to Live Science .

After being treated with anti parasitic drugs, the woman is now recovering well.

The case report of the unnamed woman as now been published in The Journal of Emergency Medicine.

According to the World Health Organization , hookworm infections are the most common parasitic infections in the world.

Hookworms are normally found in warm, moist climates.

A hookworm can infect a person when the larva burrows into a person's skin, eventually making its way to the small intestines where it develops and then lays eggs.

The eggs are later expelled in a person's faeces and the life cycle can start again.

But the type of hookworm found in the woman's knee is one that doesn't usually use humans as a host, instead preferring dogs and cats.

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Woman returns from exotic Caribbean holiday with most horrific illness - that is only usually found in dogs - Mirror.co.uk