| Domain | Evidence-based summary | Suggested ontology terms (approximate mappings where needed) | Evidence type and key source/year/DOI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Definition / classification | Myiasis is infestation of living human or animal tissue by dipteran larvae. It is classified anatomically (cutaneous/furuncular, wound, ocular, nasal, aural, urogenital, gastrointestinal/cavitary) and ecologically as obligate, facultative, or accidental/pseudomyiasis. Major implicated human families include Oestridae, Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae, and Muscidae. Lucilia sericata is typically facultative; Cochliomyia hominivorax, Chrysomya bezziana, Oestrus ovis, and Wohlfahrtia magnifica are important obligate agents (pqac-00000000, pqac-00000004, pqac-00000018). | MONDO: myiasis (ID uncertain; do not assign without ontology lookup). MeSH/ICD likely available but not verified here. Approx. HPO/clinical descriptors: cutaneous lesion, wound infestation, ocular infestation. | Human clinical review/case + taxonomy review: Swiss Med Wkly 2025 doi:10.57187/s.3827; Turk J Pediatr 2009; Microorganisms 2024 doi:10.3390/microorganisms12020233 |
| Major clinical phenotypes | Clinical forms include furuncular lesions, wound myiasis, conjunctival/ophthalmomyiasis, nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal, aural, and genital involvement. Furuncular disease may present as swelling and furuncle-like lesion; inflammatory lesions can be accompanied by eosinophilia. O. ovis in animals causes sneezing/nasal discharge and is zoonotic for ophthalmic/nasopharyngeal human disease (pqac-00000006, pqac-00000018, pqac-00000020, pqac-00000021). | Approx. HPO: Skin nodule, Furuncle, Wound infection, Edema, Pain, Bleeding, Eosinophilia, Conjunctivitis, Nasal discharge, Dyspnea. UBERON approx.: skin, oral cavity, eye, nasal cavity, pharynx, genitalia. | Human case reports/review + veterinary epidemiology: Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2025 doi:10.3389/fcimb.2025.1568563; Turk J Pediatr 2009; Med Vet Entomol 2023 doi:10.1111/mve.12634; Braz J Vet Parasitol 2024 doi:10.1590/S1984-29612024020 |
| Risk factors | Recurrent risk factors include wounds, necrosis, bacterial contamination, poor hygiene, advanced age, severe underlying illness, immobilization, diabetes, alcoholism, vascular disease, mental impairment, mechanical ventilation, nasogastric tube use, periodontal disease, mouth breathing/lip incompetence, hot seasons, rural/livestock exposure, and tropical travel. Some patients lack obvious predisposing factors (pqac-00000001, pqac-00000004, pqac-00000018). | Approx. HPO/social-clinical descriptors: Impaired wound healing, Periodontitis, Immobility, Diabetes mellitus. UBERON approx.: oral cavity, skin wound. | Human clinical review/case: Swiss Med Wkly 2025 doi:10.57187/s.3827; Turk J Pediatr 2009 |
| Pathophysiology | Causal chain: adult fly deposits eggs/larvae on wounds, body orifices, or intact skin (species-dependent) → larvae feed on living tissue, secretions, or necrotic material → mechanical/proteolytic injury and burrowing produce pain, bleeding, edema, ulceration, necrosis, and local inflammation → secondary bacterial infection may occur, rarely progressing to sepsis. Histologic inflammatory response can include lymphocytes, giant cells, neutrophils, eosinophils, and plasma cells; eosinophilia can occur in furuncular myiasis. In obligate species such as W. magnifica and C. bezziana, tissue destruction can be extensive (pqac-00000012, pqac-00000018, pqac-00000014, pqac-00000019). | GO approx.: inflammatory response; response to wounding; proteolysis; leukocyte migration. CL approx.: neutrophil, eosinophil, plasma cell, giant cell/macrophage. UBERON approx.: skin, mucosa, hoof/nasal cavities in veterinary disease. | Human case/pathobiology + veterinary review + fly microbiome study: Turk J Pediatr 2009; Microorganisms 2024 doi:10.3390/microorganisms12020233; Front Microbiol 2020 doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.00505; Archives of Orofacial Sciences 2025 doi:10.21315/aos2025.2001.cr03 |
| Diagnosis | Primary diagnosis is clinical visualization/removal of larvae, supported by species identification. Morphology of larval stages remains standard; molecular confirmation commonly uses mitochondrial COI barcoding. In ICU-associated cases, developmental stage and temperature can help estimate timing of infestation. For O. ovis and W. magnifica, detailed larval morphology and anatomic localization are used in veterinary/human investigations (pqac-00000000, pqac-00000014, pqac-00000015, pqac-00000016). | NCIT approx.: Clinical examination; Specimen collection; DNA barcoding; Polymerase chain reaction. UBERON approx.: lesion site-specific sampling. | Human/veterinary diagnostic reports: Swiss Med Wkly 2025 doi:10.57187/s.3827; Microorganisms 2024 doi:10.3390/microorganisms12020233 |
| Treatment | Core management is prompt mechanical larval extraction plus cleansing/irrigation and local wound care. Debridement is important for invasive obligate wound myiasis. Antibiotics are used when secondary bacterial infection is suspected; systemic antiparasitic therapy such as ivermectin may be used in selected cutaneous/orbital/wound cases, but facultative ICU myiasis may derive limited added benefit once larvae are removed. Veterinary treatment includes antiseptics/insecticides, local antibiotic spray, macrocyclic lactones, and supportive care (pqac-00000001, pqac-00000004, pqac-00000015, pqac-00000005). | NCIT approx.: Debridement; Wound irrigation; Anti-infective therapy; Ivermectin therapy; Supportive care. CHEBI: ivermectin; diazinon (veterinary/environmental use). | Human review + veterinary case management + bibliometric synthesis: Swiss Med Wkly 2025 doi:10.57187/s.3827; Microorganisms 2024 doi:10.3390/microorganisms12020233; Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2025 doi:10.3389/fcimb.2025.1568563 |
| Prevention | Prevention is mainly environmental and behavioral: fly control, sanitation, wound hygiene and coverage, oral care in debilitated/intubated patients, screening/windows/fumigation in healthcare settings, and traveler/livestock exposure education. ICU prevention emphasizes barriers against fly entry and better oral care for ventilated patients. Climate warming may expand risk windows/regions for some fly species (pqac-00000002, pqac-00000004, pqac-00000020). | NCIT/Public health approx.: Infection prevention; Environmental control; Health education. GO not central. | Human infection-control review + veterinary climate-linked epidemiology: Swiss Med Wkly 2025 doi:10.57187/s.3827; Med Vet Entomol 2023 doi:10.1111/mve.12634 |
| Epidemiology | Robust global incidence/prevalence in humans is not available; literature is dominated by case reports. Country-level review from Italy found 703 autochthonous human cases, 98.1% due to O. ovis; imported cases were mainly Cordylobia spp. (59.5%) and Dermatobia hominis (40.5%). ICU-acquired myiasis review identified 38 worldwide cases, 92% oro-/nasopharyngeal and 45% due to L. sericata. Seasonality and heat are recurrent epidemiologic themes (pqac-00000009, pqac-00000001, pqac-00000008). | MONDO approx.: myiasis. UBERON approx.: nasopharynx/oral cavity/eye/skin. | Human literature review: Parasitology Research 2014 doi:10.1007/s00436-014-3906-9; Swiss Med Wkly 2025 doi:10.57187/s.3827 |
| Veterinary / One Health | Veterinary burden is substantial and supports One Health relevance. W. magnifica causes painful traumatic myiasis in sheep and other warm-blooded vertebrates and is associated with emerging bacterium Wohlfahrtiimonas chitiniclastica. Recent animal prevalence data: O. ovis prevalence 56.3% in 3476 small-ruminant heads from eastern Spain, with temperature association; 45.77% (319/697) in sheep from Mato Grosso, Brazil, with year-round infestation. Veterinary lesions include lameness, depression, inappetence, blindness, reproductive problems, and death if untreated (pqac-00000014, pqac-00000020, pqac-00000021). | CL approx.: epithelial cells, neutrophils/eosinophils in inflamed tissue. UBERON approx.: nasal cavity, sinuses, skin, hoof, genitalia. CHEBI: ivermectin/doramectin (control). | Veterinary field studies and One Health review: Microorganisms 2024 doi:10.3390/microorganisms12020233; Med Vet Entomol 2023 doi:10.1111/mve.12634; Braz J Vet Parasitol 2024 doi:10.1590/S1984-29612024020 |
| Non-applicable genetics / omics | Myiasis is an infectious/parasitic infestation rather than a monogenic human disease. No established human causal genes, pathogenic variants, inheritance pattern, penetrance, or chromosomal abnormalities are known to define “myiasis.” Omics are mostly applied to the fly, not the host: COI sequencing for species ID and 16S/metagenetic studies of L. sericata microbiota. Experimental work on suspected intestinal myiasis suggests some reported cases may be pseudomyiasis rather than true colonization (pqac-00000019, pqac-00000011, pqac-00000013). | Mark as not applicable for OMIM-style causal gene fields. GO/CL/UBERON only for host response, not disease inheritance. NCIT approx.: DNA barcoding; microbiome analysis. | Insect microbiome and experimental model evidence: Front Microbiol 2020 doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.00505; PLOS One 2026 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0356742 |


*Table: This table summarizes evidence-based disease characteristics of myiasis and maps them to cautious ontology suggestions where reliable. It is useful for populating a disease knowledge base while explicitly separating well-supported clinical/parasitologic facts from non-applicable human genetics fields.*