Posted by Librarian on 4/4/2002, 6:39 pm The trouble started in August 1994 when we were guests at friends house in south-west France. It was about 300 years old and seemed like a small chateau. Unfortunately it had not been decorated for, maybe, one hundred years and there were crevices in the walls and ceilings. These were filled with black fungus mould and insects. We had to cover ourselves with mosquito nets each night. Worse still was the condition of the ground outside where sheep had grazed at will for possibly twohundred years, leaving their faeces all around. It was an ideal breeding ground for insects and flies and certainly ideal for parasites and their larvae using the insects as fectors in their breeding cycle, via the sheep (all this is well docum,ented in scientific journals). Also, vectors for certain bacteria (e.g. Anthrax and allied species), but I have no proof of this.
The following is Peter R.'s account of his battle with parasites following a holiday in France. The words are his own, and were sent to Sidney during his battle with both parasites and the ignorance, arrrogance and negligence of assorted medical professionals. Peter lived in Hastings, England.
One evening we were outside preparing a barbecue using wood charcoal (insects are attracted to wood smoke). We were sitting around a plastic table supping the local wine. I was under a large lime tree that seemed to drop sticky good from its leaves. Suddenly a mass of various insects fell from the tree and onto our heads and the table. They were a mixed bag, some crawled, some had primitive wings and some were flies. They bit ferociously into our heads and hands and we all did our best to get rid of them. The incident was soon forgotten and we were able to get away from the chateau and back to civilisation. I am not one to panic neither do I have a dendency towards paranoia, therefore I thought no more about the bites and expected them to go away in due course. In the autumn of 1994 the bites did not get better and some grew bigger, even moving to different sites beneath my scalp. Still I did nothing!
By January 1995, my wife (Sally) and I decided to eradicate them. We used Prioderm and Lindane which seemed to make matters worse. By this time I had about seven pea-sized lumps at the back of my neck and into the hairline. I suffered severe sweating bouts and I witnessed 'egg-tubes' that secreted eggs which hatched within seconds. The resulting larvae would then penetrate exposed skin (scalp, face, chest, back of hands). Oneend would dive into my skin and the other would double over and form a small staple. Within 2 minutes the things had turned black and were impossible to remove with tweezers. Only ether or a dog flea spray could halt their progress. This is only the beginning of illness #1. It is all true, so read on tomorrow! And there are three more illnesses to go, together with a not-too-happy-prognosis for me.
These scabs and hooks just made their home under my skin. My face was a mess, also my scalp and hands. Some had gotten to the skin on the upper parts of my chest. I went to my own local doctor who laughed with scathing disbelief and turned me away. A doctor friend from Croydon (where I used to work) made an appointment for me at London School of Tropical Medicine and I was supposed to see a professor.
After 6 hours wait a junior doc gave me 10 minutes of his time then said that, as I had not contracted the illness in the tropics, it was nothing to do with him. I must say I that the place in France was in a direct windstream from the Sahara and sand from there was often deposited on the property where we were staying. And, if sand, why not bugs, insects, worms, parasites?
I changed to a different local doctor who aranged an appointment with a dermatologist in Brighton. This guy was a true geriatric (i.e. 75+ , not like us youngsters). I had never met him before, he allowed me only 30 seconds to say my piece, he stumbled and dropped all the samples I had brought over his examinatioooon floor, he refused to examine me properly, he refused to lift a scab to see the 'creature' that was lying underneath. Finally, in a booming voice, he read from a textbook of parasitology that was already open at the appropriate page, to the effect that I was suffering from 'parasitophibia,' a schizophrenic illness. I was supposed to be seing imaginary insects crawling up walls, it is prevalent in post-menopausal women and especially main-line addicts beither of which applies to me. But how to explain the hooks and scabs? Well, I did these myself and Sally did those that I could not reach! I laughed in his face and walked out without paying.
I did however go for a blood test in a lab nearby. This showed (results a few days later) I had massive eosinophilia, eosinophils being a specific type of white blood cell that is produced mainly to attack parasites but not usually bacteria and other pathogens. If only the idiot geriatric had waited for the results, he might have changed his diagnosis but I think he was out of his depth. He had not seen anything like my condition before and was too proud to admit defeat.
On Friday, a few days later, the infestation had become so bad that, just by rubbing the back of a hand, caused small white maggots to exude from the pores of my skin. Later that evening my neck became swollen and resembled pictures I had seen of elephantiasis and my srotum enlarged to halfway down my thigh. Both sites still esuding these maggots. Where I live, from Friday p.m. till Monday a.m., it is impossible to get a sensible doctor. I phoned my old doctor friend in Coydon, who recommended a course of Thiabendazole (Mintezol), and the condition subsided.
The next three parasites I describe surfaced after #1 and in the following sequence. These were (1) a hookworm that invaded most of my skin, scalp and inside of my mouth, caused cutaneous larva migrans and I still have the white traces they left in or just under my skin. (2) Leishmaniasis, actually diagnosed by a British dermatologist who subsequently declined to treat me! There are some typical pictures of this on the website of University of Iowa, Dermatology Dept. (3) a curious crystalline "egg' that travels in the bloodstream and exits via hair follicles or large pores. Once hatched it starts biting the surrounding skin. One fell onto a newspaper and bits its way through.
I still have the odd 'creature/worm/larvae/parasite' (I don't know what to call them) that crops up from time to time, mainly around my mouth or the top of my forehead. Both places have ample blood supply which they seem tolike. As I saidi before, they have ruined my lungs and I have to lead what life I have left as if a cripple. I cannot move quickly, nor travel on trains, planes, etc., I cough a great deal and collapse frequently as I am totally out of breath. Sally is my carer, she had to give up work, the state pays her 39 pounds a week for my 24 hour care. I do feel angry and bitter, but I do keep going and suicide is the last thing on my mind.
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