Be warned!

"To je jako Great Wall of China na ruce!"

The day after working at the orphanage I noticed that Maarten's hands were covered in bites. I found it strange for a mosquito as the bites were also between his fingers.
Because of the recent outbreak of Dengue fever I was horrified by the idea that Maarten was possibly bitten during his visit at the orphanage and maybe infected with Malaria or Dengue.
The school physician said that those bites were either from mosquitoes or flies.
Many sleepless nights followed and after an extensive research on the internet I calmed a little hoping that those are "just" flea bites.
But those bites were also very itchy and didn't go away.
Almost one month later I noticed an elevated track leading from one of those scratched open bumps (see picture).
Now I was sure there is something more going on.
"Luckily" my friend was suspicious knowing about other similar case and wanted to see Maarten before we went to the clinic. Together with other moms familiar with the case they diagnosed him with the same kind of worm!
To shorten my story down... They were correct and even though it took me some effort to convince the physician at the clinic who only saw many mosquito bites, Maarten was diagnosed with larva migrans cutanea, a parasitic worm infection. The larvae usually plague cats and dogs. Humans can get infected by walking barefoot, or like in Maarten's case, playing in sand or soil that have been contaminated with animal feces.
We were very lucky catching the creeping eruption in an early stage.
Be warned as cutaneous larva migrans can occur also in the temperate zones during the warmer months of the year!