Those symptoms, plus the bizarre scratching sounds she continued hearing, prompted Harris to visit a doctor soon after her return to England.
Though doctors at first dismissed the symptoms as nothing more than an ear infection, specialists soon made a startling discovery: Harris' ear was filled with flesh-eating worms, according to the Daily Mail.
The worms that Harris, 27, was hosting were the larvae of the New World screwworm fly (Cochliomyia hominivorax). The fly is a notorious livestock pest that also seeks out pets, zoo animals and occasionally humans as hosts.
A pregnant female screwworm fly seeks an open wound on the skin of a warm-blooded animal to lay her eggs. Within 24 hours, the eggs hatch into tiny larvae that feed on living tissue and bodily fluids, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The screwworm fly was, after many years of eradication efforts, eliminated from the United States in 1959 by a program that introduced sterile males into the population. The fly, however, continues to plague livestock in parts of Central and South America.
A close relative, the secondary screwworm fly (Cochliomyia macellaria), feeds on dead or diseased flesh. The larvae of this fly have been used successfully in "maggot therapy" to clean infected wounds and promote healing after surgery.
Harris was apparently infected after a swarm of flies pestered her while hiking in Peru; one flew into her ear, but after she shooed the insect away, she thought nothing more of it.
Read more at Discovery News
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