Tungiasis, Tungiasis

It is also known in Latin America as the nigua and bicho de pie. Nagy N, Abari E, DHaese J, Calheiros C, Heukelbach J, Menche N, Feldmeier H, Mehlhorn H "Investigations on the Life Cycle and Morphology of Tunga penetrans in Brazil." Parasitology Research 101.Supplement 2 (2007): 233-242. Springer-Verlag, 2007. SpringerLink. 22 Feb. 2009 . , Gibbs, Neil F. "Tungiasis." eMedicine. 6 Jan. 2009. WedMD. 22 Feb. 2009.

The first case of tungiasis was described in 1526 by Gonzalo Fernndez de Oviedo y Valds where he discussed the skin infection and its symptoms on crew members from Columbuss Santa Maria after they were shipwrecked on Haiti.

The flea is able to jump only 20 cm, which explains why tungiasis lesions are most commonly found on the periungal region of the toes. Rate of incidence, and transmission via the ejected eggs among people, is greatly increased in poor communities and populations because of the lack of adequate housing.

In any event, reptiles and bird would be accidental hosts at the least and possibly dead-end hosts at best. Lacking firm evidence, it remains to be seen whether T. penetrans could progress through all stages of tungiasis in non-mammalian species.

This preferred ecological niche offers a way to decrease transmission among humans by investing in concrete grounds as opposed to the sand that is usually used in shacks and some favelas. Indeed, Nany et al. (2007) report that In shacks with concreted ground being cleaned every day with water, Tunga [1] larvae were hardly found. In a longitudinal study conducted from March 2001 to January 2002, incidence of tungiasis was found to vary significantly with the local seasons of an endemic community in Brazil. In particular, the study found that occurrence of tungiasis varies throughout the year and seems to follow local precipitation patterns. Maximum and minimum prevalence rates differed by more than a factor of three. The authors suggest that the correlation is due to the high humidity in the soil impairing larval development during the rainy season, as well as the more obvious reason that rain may simply wash away all stages of T. penetrans due its small size of 1mm.

Public health and prevention strategies should then be done with elimination as the target. Better household hygiene, including having a cemented rather than a sand floor, and washing it often, would lower the rates of tungiasis significantly.

It was not until August 1989 that three Mexican patients presented with the disease. Though there were other cases of tungiasis reported thereafter, all were acquired in Africa. Ibez-Bernal, Sergio and Velasco Castrejn, Oscar. "New Records of Human Tungiasis in Mexico (Siphonaptera: Tungidae)." Journal of Medical Entemology 33.6 (1996): 988-989. Article kindly provided in PDF format by the main author, Prof. Sergio Ibez-Bernal.

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