Woman, 28, squeezes infected 'insect bite' on stomach and discovers she is infested with 14 FLESH-EATING MAGGOTS after visiting Africa

Within weeks of returning home from Africa, Catherine Stewart felt something wriggling in her stomach

A British woman returned from doing charity work in Africa to find flesh-eating maggots living - and wriggling - in her stomach.
Catherine Stewart, 28, from Liverpool, visited The Gambia to better understand how the charity she worked for in the UK was helping the West African country's inhabitants.
When she returned to the UK and discovered several bites on her body she wasn't worried - but as one turned yellow she thought she should investigate it further.
Squeezing the lesion revealed she was infested with the larvae of the tumbu fly which gorge on human flesh.
'There were just a few red circles that looked like bites [when I was in The Gambia], but when I got home I found more,' she said.
'When I found a yellow one on my stomach I just thought it was just a small infected bite with pus and thought squeezing it might help,'
'But as I squeezed I felt something pull back [into the skin]. I immediately thought there was something wrong.'
Catherine immediately called her husband Paul and asked him to help.
'I called for him to grab some tweezers and then asked him if he could pull out whatever it was that was moving under my skin if I squeezed.' Paul then pulled out a large maggot.
'I started screaming and saying "No, no, please tell me it's not a maggot!". Paul then looked at me and said "I think we need to go to hospital",' she recalled.

Catherine immersed herself in the African working holiday and wasn't aware of the dangers lurking in damp towels. Experts say that to prevent being infested it is important to tumble dry or iron wet clothes when in the tropics to kill tumba fly eggs

Catherine left) picked up the maggots when she visited the Gambia to better understand how the charity she worked for was benefiting the West African country's inhabitants

Catherine discovered she was infested when she asked her husband, Paul, to use a tweezers to pull out what was wriggling in her abdomen (CGI pictured). Paul immediately took her to hospital

WHAT IS THE TUMBU FLY AND HOW DO HUMANS HOST ITS LARVAE?

The tumbu fly is found across the tropics and can cause a condition called myiasis, when the larvae feed on a host.
The female tumbu fly lays its eggs on damp clothing or towels. If damp fabrics come into contact with human skin, the eggs penetrate the skin.
To prevent catching the larvae, clothes should be tumble-dried or, if they are left to dry outside, ironed, as the heat kills the eggs.
After two or three days, the larvae hatch beneath the skin.
Once born, the larvae need air to breathe so they eat their way out of their host.
This can cause significant pain and irritation to the surrounding tissue.
It is well-documented that people become infested - Youtube is full of cilps - with tumbu maggots while abroad and many try to remove them by squeezing.
But this can be dangerous as the maggot can split in half and rot underneath the skin triggering an infection
Instead, the best way to get rid of the maggots is to cover the wound with Vaseline. This cuts off the maggot's air supply causes it to surface.

Before they sought medical help Paul and Catherine managed to pull out a further six maggots.
Catherine's ordeal features in a new Discovery Channel documentary, called 'Bugs, Bites and Parasites' that follows the work of specialists who are faced with patients exhibiting a variety of mysterious symptoms - more often than not from people who have travelled abroad.
Catherine visited Liverpool Royal University Hospital's School of Tropical Medicine, a world leader in the field of mysterious illnesses.
In the programme Catherine presents the maggots in a small bottle for specialist registrar Dr Helen Winslow to analyse.
Grimly, they are still alive and writhing.
Further inspection reveals that they are in fact tumbu larvae, flesh-eating maggots that burrow under a person's skin to feast on flesh.
The female tumbu fly lays its eggs on damp clothing or towels.
If damp fabrics come into contact with human skin, then the eggs penetrate the skin.
Doctors advise that to prevent catching the larvae, clothes should be tumble-dried or, if they are left to dry outside, ironed, as the heat kills the eggs.
After two or three days, the larvae hatch beneath the skin.
Once born, the larvae need air to breathe so they eat their way out of their host. This can cause significant pain and irritation to the surrounding tissue.

Paul and Catherine managed to extract six maggots - which can grow up to one cm long - before they arrived at the Liverpool Royal's University Hospital where they presented their findings to specialist registrar Dr Helen Winslow

For Catherine it took 15 minutes for Dr Winslow to remove a further eight maggots from her body - bringing Catherine's total maggot count to 14. 
It is well-documented - Youtube is full of clips - that people become infested with tumbu maggots and many try to remove them by squeezing them out, much like an infected spot.
But this can split the maggot in half and trigger an infection.

The female tumbu fly lays its eggs on damp clothing or towels. If damp fabrics come into contact with human skin, then the eggs penetrate the skin and hatch into larvae (CGI pictured) that feast on flesh

Instead, the best way to get rid of the maggots is to cover the wound with Vaseline. This cuts off the maggot's air supply and forces it to come to the surface for oxygen.
After Dr Winslow's examination and extractions, Catherine is ordered to carry out a daily body check each morning for a week.
By the end of the week Catherine is given the all-clear and says that she is already planning another trip to the same area.
'The charity work I do is very important and nothing - not even flesh-eating tumbu flies - is going to stop me from doing it,' she said.
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