Health Care — US scales up screwworm - The Hill Guest Post

US scales up screwworm response Federal authorities on Thursday launched a series of actions responding to the first New World screwworm cases detected in the U.S. in a decade. © AP Photo/Eric Gay The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) activated a formal emergency response to the New World screwworm, with the agency investigating the outbreak and preparing for potential human exposure. “The CDC is just one more step in the right direction that allows us to deploy more resources at the federal level,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters in Texas. Concurrently, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to a generic over-the-counter tablet, nitenpyram, to treat New World screwworm in dogs and cats, marking the first generic animal drug authorized for use against the parasite. At least seven cases have been confirmed in Texas and New Mexico so far among cattle, a goat and a dog. New World screwworm is a fly whose larvae feed ‌on living tissue of warm-blooded animals. It enters through open wounds and burrows into the flesh, causing severe wounds and animal suffering if not detected and treated quickly. The screwworm was eradicated in the U.S. in the 1960s, but it has come back before. The most recent outbreak occurred between 2016 and 2017 in Florida. The parasite is endemic across South America and the Caribbean. Human infections are rare and there haven’t been any U.S. cases reported so far in this outbreak.