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Myiasis in the Gambia
CORRESPONDENCE
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cure any rats : neither did a total of 350 or 400 mg./kg. One rat receiving 500 mg./kg. in 10 doses died, apparently from a delayed toxic effect of the drug. F r o m these results it was concluded that stylomycin hydrochloride was unlikely to be of much use in the treatment of human T. rhodesiense infections, as the dose needed to cure even a proportion of the treated rats lay within the range of doses which were apparently fatal to some rats (the seven rats dying after treatment, without demonstrable parasitaemia, being assumed to have been killed by the drug). It was noted that a shorter course of larger doses was more effective than the same dose given as a longer course of smaller doses, but was probably more toxic than the latter. T h e Lederle Laboratories Division has recently reported long-term renal lesions in animals treated with stylomycin, and has recommended the temporary discontinuance of clinical trials with the antibiotic (Ottati, in. litt.). Further experimental work on this substance has therefore been discontinued.
I am, etc.,
J. R. BAKER, Protozoologist. Central Trypanosomiasis Research Laboratory, East African Trypanosomiasis Research Organization, Tororo, Uganda. 31st December, 1956.
MYIASIS IN THE GAMBIA
SIR,--James, M. T. (1947), gives the distribution of Cordylobia anthropophaga as follows : French Sudan, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Dalomey, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Gabon, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Italian Somaliland, Belgian Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Nyasaland, Mozambique, N o r t h and South Rhodesia, South West Africa, Transvaal and Natal. I have recently seen a case of cutaneous myiasis due to C. anthropophaga in a European child in the Gambia.
Case history A European child 18 months old was seen at the out-patient clinic with a history of fretfulness, irritability and itching of the buttock for the previous five days. On examination he was pyrexial, 100°F (axillary), and he had a painful furuncular swelling in the right buttock. On close inspection a small hole could be detected in the centre of the boil from which the posterior end of the larva could be seen. The father of the child had noticed this, and on the advice of his native servant had applied moistened table salt in an unsuccessful attempt to extract the larva. The same treatment was given by me. The posterior end of the larva began to emerge and was easily extracted with a pair of forceps. The larva was about 9 ram. long, dirty white in colour and bluntly pointed anteriorly. It was sent to Professor D. S. Bertram of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who identified it as a specimen of C. anthropophaga. This is believed to be the first reported account of cutaneous myiasis in the Gambia. I am, etc. H. M. GILLES.
Medical Research Council Laboratories, Fajara, Gambia. 7th December, 1956. REFERENCE : JAMES,M. T. (1947).
Misc. Publ. U.S. Dep. Agric. No. 631.
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cure any rats : neither did a total of 350 or 400 mg./kg. One rat receiving 500 mg./kg. in 10 doses died, apparently from a delayed toxic effect of the drug. F r o m these results it was concluded that stylomycin hydrochloride was unlikely to be of much use in the treatment of human T. rhodesiense infections, as the dose needed to cure even a proportion of the treated rats lay within the range of doses which were apparently fatal to some rats (the seven rats dying after treatment, without demonstrable parasitaemia, being assumed to have been killed by the drug). It was noted that a shorter course of larger doses was more effective than the same dose given as a longer course of smaller doses, but was probably more toxic than the latter. T h e Lederle Laboratories Division has recently reported long-term renal lesions in animals treated with stylomycin, and has recommended the temporary discontinuance of clinical trials with the antibiotic (Ottati, in. litt.). Further experimental work on this substance has therefore been discontinued.
I am, etc.,
J. R. BAKER, Protozoologist. Central Trypanosomiasis Research Laboratory, East African Trypanosomiasis Research Organization, Tororo, Uganda. 31st December, 1956.
MYIASIS IN THE GAMBIA
SIR,--James, M. T. (1947), gives the distribution of Cordylobia anthropophaga as follows : French Sudan, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Dalomey, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Gabon, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Italian Somaliland, Belgian Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Nyasaland, Mozambique, N o r t h and South Rhodesia, South West Africa, Transvaal and Natal. I have recently seen a case of cutaneous myiasis due to C. anthropophaga in a European child in the Gambia.
Case history A European child 18 months old was seen at the out-patient clinic with a history of fretfulness, irritability and itching of the buttock for the previous five days. On examination he was pyrexial, 100°F (axillary), and he had a painful furuncular swelling in the right buttock. On close inspection a small hole could be detected in the centre of the boil from which the posterior end of the larva could be seen. The father of the child had noticed this, and on the advice of his native servant had applied moistened table salt in an unsuccessful attempt to extract the larva. The same treatment was given by me. The posterior end of the larva began to emerge and was easily extracted with a pair of forceps. The larva was about 9 ram. long, dirty white in colour and bluntly pointed anteriorly. It was sent to Professor D. S. Bertram of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who identified it as a specimen of C. anthropophaga. This is believed to be the first reported account of cutaneous myiasis in the Gambia. I am, etc. H. M. GILLES.
Medical Research Council Laboratories, Fajara, Gambia. 7th December, 1956. REFERENCE : JAMES,M. T. (1947).
Misc. Publ. U.S. Dep. Agric. No. 631.