SKIN PROBLEMS: CREEPING ERUPTION

Creeping eruption is the intensely itching skin disease caused by tiny parasitic worms (the larvae of insects) crawling around just under the surface of the skin. Wandering aimlessly, the larvae move about one inch daily, leaving irregular, red, slightly raised tracks in the skin rather like miniature mole tunnels.

Also known as Cutaneous Larva Migrans, this condition occurs when human skin is parasitized by the eggs of worms that normally infest other species (e.g: dog, cat, or cattle hookworms), the American Family Physician (35#6:163) reports. The same sort of situation arises when horse flies or deer flies lay eggs in human skin, but the resulting maggots that hatch and live there are much larger and cause “hot spot” lesions that resemble boils.

Larvae remain trapped under the surface of our skin only if their species are not adapted to ours. When “human” hookworms get into us, however, the larvae not only causes redness and irritation at the site of entry through the skin, but they soon move on through the bloodstream to the lungs (temporarily producing cough and bloody sputum) to settle ultimately in our intestines. There they develop into adult worms that cause us to bleed internally and become anemic. Only when parasites are in the wrong species are they unable to migrate and to complete their life cycles.

Fortunately, when any of these conditions is recognized, it can be cured with appropriate medications. The moral of this story, then, is to visit a dermatologist without delay if creams do not quickly take care of itchy red lesions of the skin.

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