An elderly woman who lived in a Tuen Mun care home has died after flesh-eating fly larvae were found in her mouth.
The 79-year-old resident of the Kai Yan Institution of Old Age was admitted to Tuen Mun Hospital last Thursday and died three days later. This was the third such infestation this year but the first to involve a fatality. The larvae can infest all mammals.
Health officials were quick to stress that the death was caused by an unrelated illness, even though an infestation by the larvae of Chrysomya bezziana, also known as the screw-worm fly, can cause death. However, a spokeswoman for the Centre for Health Protection could not identify the cause of death.
'[Her] symptoms included bleeding from [the mouth] and chills. Maggots were found in the patient's [mouth],' said the spokeswoman for the centre.
In January, a 78-year-old woman who had stayed at an extended care hospital in Sha Tin was found with an infestation of the fly larvae in her mouth, and a month later the flies were found to have infested a leg wound suffered by a 50-year-old woman. Both have recovered.
The parasites feed on skin tissue in wounds and body orifices, and often target old and debilitated people who cannot move easily.