Horror as 20 live maggots found under man's skin after Africa trip

A man was horrified to find he had 20 live maggots living under his skin after noticing sore and itchy blotches on his body.

The man, whose surname is Ma, from Guangzhou, China, had spent six months working in Africa before he noticed the blotches after he returned home, reports the Mirror.

He spent two weeks feeling itchy before he went to see a dermatologist at the Shenzhen Nanshan Hospital.

Upon examination, the dermatologist discovered the man's sores were actually maggots nestled under his skin on his admen and right thigh.

According to the Daily Record, the man underwent a surgical procedure to extract the wriggling maggots, and a total of 20 of the creatures were removed from his body.

The maggots were then identified as tumbu fly maggots, a type of blowfly whose larvae feeds on living human tissue.

According to Wikipedia, the tumbu fly, also known as the skin maggot fly, is a species of blow-fly common in East and Central Africa.

It is a parasite of large mammals (including humans), during its larval stage.

The tumbu fly lays its eggs on the ground. The larvae, known generally as Cayor Worms, crawl over the soil until they come in contact with man or a mammal, penetrate the skin and lie in the 'subcutaneous' tissue, causing the formation of tumours.

After the larvae finds a host, it takes eight to 12 days developing through three larval stages before it reaches the prepupal stage.

On reaching full growth, the larvae leave the host, fall to the ground, bury themselves and pupate.