14 Worms Lived In Her Eye

August 2016. A 26-year-old woman from Oregon is salmon fishing in Alaska when something gets into her eye. She pulls it out. It's a worm — and it's moving. Over the next weeks, fourteen of them come out of one eye, a species no one had ever found in a human being.


This is a true story, told in seven parts: the monster (Thelazia, the eyeworm), the courier (the face fly that drinks tears with a sponge full of tiny teeth), the other tear-drinkers (a moth that harpoons sleeping birds, butterflies on turtles, sweat bees in an eye), the first victim, the sequel — and the rules, if it ever happens to you.


Good news first: this is very rare — about a dozen cases in North America, ever. If something in your eye won't wash out, see an eye doctor. This video is for education, not medical advice.


Chapters:

0:00 Fourteen worms

0:39 Something is drinking your tears

0:55 Part one: the monster

1:36 Part two: the courier

2:09 Where the fly came from

2:41 The delivery

3:20 Part three: the thirsty

4:06 The tear bar

4:42 Part four: the first victim

5:12 The identification

5:40 Part five: the sequel

6:30 Part six: the franchise

6:51 The European tour

7:30 Part seven: the rules

8:18 Epilogue


Sources: Associated Press via Fox9, "14 worms pulled from woman's eye after rare infection" (2018); OHSU and Science News (2018); Bradbury R.S. et al., "Case Report: Conjunctival Infestation with Thelazia gulosa", American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2018), doi:10.4269/ajtmh.17-0870; Bradbury R.S. et al., Clinical Infectious Diseases 70(3):518 (the second case, California); Gizmodo and ScienceAlert (the 1928 German papers); CDC DPDx, "Thelaziasis"; Montana State University MontGuide "Face flies on cattle"; Merck Veterinary Manual, "Face Flies"; "Face Fly Biology, Pest Status, Current Management Prospects and Research Needs", Journal of Integrated Pest Management (2021); Purdue Extension E-235 (range, Nova Scotia 1952); University of Tennessee W472 (flight range); Kansas State University MF2745 (wintering in attics); Hilgartner R. et al., Biology Letters (2007) (the Madagascar moth); Science (2018, video: a moth drinking the tears of a sleeping bird in Brazil); National Geographic (butterflies drinking turtle tears); BBC (2019, Taiwan: four sweat bees); Otranto & Dutto, Emerging Infectious Diseases 14(4) (2008) and UKHSA (Thelazia callipaeda and the fruit fly Phortica variegata in Europe and England).


#eyeworm #flies #truestory