Has anyone contracted this "problem" while in Jamaica? Who did you go to for help if they manifested themselves while you were still in Jamaica?
We know it is a sub/tropical problem and it is very common as we have since found out from a multitude of doctors. Here is our experience dealing with it. We spent six weeks this past spring in Jamaica. Four days after we got home my husband says the skin on his feet feels irritated...so I look at them and sure enough there are huge spots of redness. I told him that it may possibly be from having to once again wear a full shoe rather than sandals. Another 4 days pass...he says the redness is worse. I just about freaked out.....I knew what it was, but he didn't. I had to tell him it was parasites....a really, really bad case of parasites. His feet were covered in them. So both of us were freaked out totally! He was at the Dr the next day. Unfortunately his Dr was gone so had to see someone else. He was prescribed Vermox. Don't waste your money on it, it doesn't do a thing. It got so bad so fast it was shocking. Both feet were covered in worms circling around and around, pockets of infection everywhere....between toes,on soles, on top and sides , even under his toenails. This all happened in about a week. To make a 4 month story short, he ended up on disability as he could no longer walk on his feet. The severe amount of infection invaded his body so bad that it wreaked havoc on his immune system, so when his Dr prescribed penicillin or antibiotics he would go into dangerous allergic reaction. He was rushed to emergency 8 times. His throat, tongue, face, hands, arms, legs would swell in minutes....no, actually it only took seconds to happen. His Dr was back about a couple weeks into dealing with this and he knew exactly what it was and what was needed to end it quickly. Only a dosage of Ivermectin or Albiendazole will. The Dr tried to contact Health Canada to dispense it but they could care less about anyone so we found out. Needless to say the Dr was not impressed. He actually had tried the end of June and then again the first week of August as my husband's left foot had started to turn black and we were preparing ourselves for either partial loss or complete loss of this foot. Everyday, 2-3 times a day it was a routine of peeling off bandages and soaking his feet in salt and water, then rewrapping them. It was a four month nightmare!
About 90% of our drs here are Afrikaanars so they are well aware of this problem and the cure. I did hours and hours of research online to educate myself on how we could deal with it. My husband ended up seeing his Dr 20/25 times. He had to be taken to the hospital to have needles put into the pockets of infection to have them drained. Some of the pockets were one inch wide by three inches long and protruding an inch off the surface of his skin.
There is a severe amount of pain associated with this as well as painful itching as you can well imagine. The trauma of knowing you have worms is terrible.
When I was doing research on this, I noticed Jamaica comes up fairly often with cases of it, even though I know it is in other places also.
Everyone that travels to a tropical place needs to be very aware of this problem as it can result in life or limb being lost as we found out.
Fortunately my husbands feet made a full recovery even though it took awhile for new skin to grow and toughen enough so he could put on shoes.
This is why I am asking if anyone has experienced this while in Jamaica.
