Agriculture Minister Says Proper Hygiene is Key to Prevent Screwworm Infections

Belize has 335 confirmed cases of screwworm, the lowest number in Central America, but concern continues to grow after two human cases have been reported.

Speaking on the issue in Wednesday’s episode of the Open Your Eyes morning show, Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai reassured the public that containment efforts are ongoing and livestock exports remain unaffected.

Speaking on Wednesday’s episode of the Open Your Eyes morning show, Minister Mai said the second human case involved an elderly man in Camalote, who developed a wound on his foot.

Minister Mai shared details of the second human case in Belize, detected in an elderly man in Camalote. “In my years working with screwworm at least thirty years ago, we never reported a case in a human being. It’s a different era now; thirty years later, we have 2 cases in Belize,” he said.

But how does a human get infected in the first place? According to Mai, it has a lot to do with proper hygiene. 

“If you have an injury with blood in the morning, it happens to us on the farm; you get scraped with barbed wire, it stays bleeding, and the flies may be attracted to it and lay their eggs without you even noticing. But, when you reach home and you shower, that is gone, because the eggs are washed away. The problem is that the eggs are there and you won’t wash the wound for 24 hours,” Mai explained. 

Eggs can hatch into larvae within 24 hours, which feed on tissue before “crawling out of the wound and falling on the ground and pupate. In 21 days, they emerge as adult flies, and the cycle continues.”

Mai added, “The wound can be as huge as you want it to be and as small as a tick bite, but once that droplet of blood is there, the fly is attracted to that speck of blood there.” He said it could even be a “slight scrape.” 

Mai also reassured that Belize’s “exports continue strong in Mexico and Central America. It will continue strong,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it is not affecting our livestock export.” 

Meanwhile, regional measures are underway to combat screwworm, including proposals for new treatment plants in Chiapas, Mexico, and Texas, which would support the existing COPEG facility in Panama that is currently at capacity.