A 70 yr old woman, resident in Aba (South East, Nigeria) referred to the surgery clinic of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (Aba, Nigeria) with a week history of "multiple itchy, painful boils" of the right breast.
Pain and swelling of the right breast were so severe on the day of presentation that she was taken to the emergency unit of the hospital where a diagnosis of right breast mastitis was made before her referral to us. She often visits her village where the Tumbu fly is endemic. She usually spreads her washed dresses on a line near the bush and does not iron them before wearing them. Examination revealed a patient in severe painful distress, multiple discharging sinuses on the right breast and each sinus had a whitish object at the opening with some wriggling movement .

Fourteen larvae were extracted from the affected area They were identified as the larvae of Cordylobia anthropophaga by the parasitologist in the hospital. She was placed on ampicillin/cloxacillin capsules, tetanus toxoid injection, analgesics and daily wound dressing with eusol. She was seen in the clinic a week later when all the furuncles had healedShe has been doing well since then with no recurrence of the disease.