“I swear white worms get under my nails in my skin,” states this reader in her submission to us. She describes a frightful situation for herself, and asks for “any suggestions”: “I need medication or something to get this out of me.”

To start off, we must make clear to our reader that we will neither be able to identify the creatures that are bothering her nor suggest any medication that she can take. This is because her situation is clearly medical in nature, and since we are not medical professionals, we are not qualified to give out this type of information. Instead, what we can do is point her in the direction of professionals who will be able to help her. So, what we can recommend is that our reader do one or more of the following:

1) Search for a medical parasitologist in her area using this directory of medical parasitology consultants: https://www.astmh.org/for-astmh-members/clinical-consultants-directory.
2) Search for a local parasitologist by doing a Google search for “medical parasitologist (name of the closest big city)” or “tropical medicine specialist (name of the closest big city)”.
3) Get in touch with Dr. Omar Amin at the Parasitology Center at https://www.parasitetesting.com.

Moving on, we still think it important to share our reader’s story, in the case that other people who relate to her story may also benefit from the resources listed above. Additionally, we advise that our reader share all the same information with whatever medical parasitologist she consults.

She “had abscesses drained in April and May.” After that, she thought her “dissolvable stitches migrated and began spitting out plastic stitch-type material in other wounds on [her] arms”, and her nose and face. Following this, she started noticing strings under the skin of her face. When she pulled on the strings, they moved other areas of her face. “My nose was so affected with string that I could move it all around.”

Four-to-five days before she sent in her submission, she noticed movement in her nose, ears, eyes, and all under her skin. “I took Reese’s pin worm medicine, but after four days, no big change. If I touch a wound I can feel movement in other areas. I have two abscesses in my legs that shoot out shiny stuff that actually adhered the scab to it.” She then “finally got it off”.

“These wounds are actually growing into bandages,” she continues, stating that they are “very painful to remove”; “my ear is so bad it’s driving me crazy with […] pain and itching. If I touch anywhere where there is a string or white area, other areas start moving: my scalp, legs, feet” and “especially the ear.” She also expresses concerns that she is going to lose her hearing.

“My eyes even have that shiny material in it that is in my wounds: looks like liquid glass.” She continues: “I went to Temple and they saw nothing! They wouldn’t treat me for it. I cough up all this yellow stuff and see white inch-long strands. Temple took X-ray and said pneumonia, and even looked up my history with schizophrenia. They said a middle aged woman of 52 wouldn’t just develop that mental illness, but they didn’t look further. […] They only gave doxycycline for pneumonia and DC me.”

To conclude, we are unfortunately not qualified to directly help our reader. That said, we hope that the resources listed above come to use, and we wish her the very best.

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