Mystery as fully intact fly is found buzzing around inside a Missouri man’s INTESTINES during a routine colonoscopy
A man in Missouri has left doctors scratching their heads after finding a live fly deep in his intestines.
The 63-year-old patient had come this year for a routine screening for colon cancer, during which they placed a camera in the intestines, also known as a colonoscopy.
The procedure went normally until doctors reached the transverse colon – the area at the top of the large intestine – where they found a completely intact fly.
Doctors say it is a ‘mystery’ as to how the insect got there, but it could be due to contaminated lettuce the man ate the day before his appointment.
The above image, which the patient gave permission to share, shows the fly as it was found in his intestines. It didn’t move when poked
The fly was found in the transverse colon, the upper part of the organ. This is indicated above
The patient was questioned after the discovery, but admitted that he had no idea how the insect had gotten into his body. He felt no symptoms.
He told the doctors that the day before his colonoscopy he had drank only clear liquids, as needed to clear the intestinal tract.
The night before his 24-hour fast, he had eaten pizza and lettuce, but he said he didn’t remember there being a fly in his food.
In rare cases, flies have laid eggs in fruits and vegetables that then survived the stomach acids and hatched in the intestines.
The doctors wrote about the case, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology: ‘This case represents a very rare colonoscopic finding.
“(It’s a) mystery as to how the intact fly found its way into the transverse colon.”
Flies and their larvae can infect the human intestine in a condition medically called intestinal myiasis.
This happens when a person consumes food containing fly eggs and larvae.
In rare cases, these can survive the acid in the stomach and then infect the intestines, grow and possibly mutate into adult flies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says some infected patients have no symptoms, but others have abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea.
It is not clear what food the man may have eaten that was contaminated with fly maggots, but this has previously been linked to rotten bananas.
In one case from the 1980s, a 12-month-old girl in Washington state was taken to the doctor after her mother noticed “moving worms” in her stool. This was not seen in the feces of other family members.
Investigators determined that the child had been given overripe bananas hanging in a wire basket in the kitchen, a magnet for flies.
Doctors in Missouri said the discovery was a “mystery.” It is possible for insect larvae to infect the intestines, as previous cases have shown
They suggested that the maggots in the fruit had been swallowed by the child, survived the stomach acid and were expelled in the feces.
No treatment was offered, but parents were advised to cover the fruit and wash it between consumption.
Myiasis is not tracked by the CDC, but officials warn it is more common during the warmer months — April through September — when flies are more common.
A spokesperson for the University of Missorui School of Medicine, where the discovery was made, declined to comment.