Franglais Expats: Exotic Myasis!!

So is it just me or does the name Exotic Myiasis sound quite, well...exotic? And lovely. Could be the name of an island, right? Or a delicious recipe from Greece. Or perhaps even the name of a new kind of bathing suit. Anything, and I mean ANYTHING but THE LARVA FROM A FLY THAT IMPLANTS ITSELF UNDER YOUR SKIN AND GROWS INTO A MAGGOT!!!!!!!!!!! Right?

Well, anyway, you get the point, and after one year in Gabon this crazy maggot thing has now started happening to us!! It started when I decided that having our maid wash, machine dry and iron my bathing suits was a bit over the top and that a simple rinse and re-wear would be just fine for me (I mean, I'm far from the J. Lo of Africa). To be honest, Ines looked at me funnily when I told her to stay away from my bathing suits, but I thought nothing of it at the time. Turns out you in fact DO need to have your bathing suits (and underwear and socks and sheets and pajamas) washed, machine dried and ironed in order to avoid any possible Exotic Myasis occurring to you from larvae lurking in the fibers. Well, I won't tell you where my larva ended up implanting itself exactly, but suffice it to say that I was wearing a bikini when it happened.

Then about a week after I managed to pop the MAGGOT out of myself (still alive, mind you), Jourdain started to show signs quite similar to the itchy bump I had acquired, but this time on his wrist and on the lower left side of his head. Two at the same time--the poor kid!! After loads of poking, squeezing and very loud screaming from numerous family members at once Olivier and I managed to pop two Exotic Myasis (or is Myases the plural?) right out of our little 4 year old. The worst is when you pop it out and the damned thing just keeps on wiggling. OK, OK, I'm sure that's enough description for many of you.

In an effort to better understand what it was that was invading our bodies over here I ran to that handy Google icon in my toolbar and typed in "Africa fly maggot skin" and came up with the very pleasant sounding "Exotic Myasis". With 133,000 sites mentioning all or some of these words I guess our little family problem isn't all that rare after all. I felt in good company if the people at Google knew what this was all about!

Below here I've copied an abridged version of one particularly descriptive site I found. I say abridged because I've pasted the drawing of the beast rather than the actual photographs they also show. The link to the entire site is at the bottom of this post for the more curious and strong-stomached among you. - ENJOY!

(PS I'll be sure to post more pictures of us at the beach next blog in an effort to help take your mind off this one)

EXOTIC MYIASIS
Introduction

Myiasis is the invasion of living tissue or organs by the immature stage (maggots) of flies. Every year several species of exotic diptera are imported into Australia in the subdermal layers of the skin of overseas travellers. Patients returning from overseas present to their doctor with painful furuncular lesions, often unaware that the cause is a maggot.