US confirms first travel-linked human screwworm case from Central America
The US Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday confirmed the nation’s first human infection of New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite, linked to an outbreak in Central America,News.Az reports, citingReuters.
The case, investigated by the Maryland Department of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was confirmed by the CDC as New World screwworm on August 4, and involved a patient who returned from travel to El Salvador, HHS spokesman Andrew G. Nixon said in an email to Reuters.
Earlier, Reuters noted that beef industry sources said last week that the CDC had confirmed a case of New World screwworm in a person in Maryland who had traveled to the United States from Guatemala.
Nixon did not address the discrepancy on the source of the human case.
"The risk to public health in the United States from this introduction is very low," he said.
The US government has not confirmed any cases in animals this year.
The differing accounts from the US government and industry sources on the human case are likely to further rattle an industry of cattle ranchers, beef producers and livestock traders already on high alert for potential US infestations as screwworm has moved northward from Central America and southern Mexico.
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