Those blemishes moving around on her face? Turns out it was a parasitic worm
A woman from Russia became host to a parasite through a mosquito bite.
First, it appeared as a tiny blemish under the eye.
But over the next two weeks, the 32-year-old woman watched it move – snapping photos as it formed bumps above her eye before it made its way down into her lip, forcing her mouth to swell.
It was a parasite, and it was living inside her face.
The case – and shocking images – were published on Thursday in a report titled “Migrating Dirofilaria repens” in the New England Journal of Medicine, detailing a case in which a woman from Russia became host to a parasite through a mosquito bite. The report says the woman, who was not named, started showing symptoms after travelling to a rural area not far from Moscow, where she “recalled being frequently bitten by mosquitoes”.
