In an unexpected turn of events during a routine colonoscopy in Missouri, USA, doctors stumbled upon an alive fly lurking in a 63-year-old man's transverse colon. The method of this insect's arrival in the man's intestines remains a mystery.
Before the colonoscopy, the man had adhered to a liquid-only diet, and his evening meal comprised of a salad and pizza minutes before the 24-hour fast. Recalling any fly in his food, he came up blank.
Medical professionals suspect that the salad could have been the culprit, contaminated with fly eggs or larvae. Under specific circumstances, these creatures can endure stomach acid, infest the intestines, and develop into fully-grown flies. This parasitic invasion is coined as intestinal myiasis–a condition rarely spotted during a colonoscopy, as the prestigious "American Journal of Gastroenterology" deems this case.
Routine colonoscopies, employing a camera to inspect the gut, prove vital for detecting bowel issues, including colon cancer. While some affected patients go symptomless, others experience abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. The Missouri man, fortunately, exhibited no symptoms.
Back in the 1980s, a similar incident occurred in the United States. A twelve-month-old girl presented symptoms of moving worms in her diaper, leading doctors to discover overripe bananas in a wire basket in their kitchen – a fly's magnet.
The presence of the fly in the man's colonoscopy stresses the importance of regular screenings for early bowel disease detection. The possibility that contaminated food caused the fly eggs and larvae infestation in the man's intestines remains speculative, yet a plausible explanation for this remarkable finding during a routine colonoscopy.
- The specific circumstances in which food can get infected with fly eggs or larvae cause intestinal myiasis.
- Fly eggs can stick to organic food items with high moisture content and survive the digestive system due to their adaptability to polluted environments.
- Under these rare conditions, the larvae can hatch in the intestines, penetrate the intestinal wall, and infest the intestines, leading to various symptoms.
[1] Intestinal Myiasis: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. (n.d.). CDC. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from
[2] Intestinal Myiasis. (n.d.). DOXY. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from
