Stowaways with wings: two case reports on high-flying insects

More people than ever before are traversing continents, either for business purposes or on holiday. Because 3-10 percent of these travelers experience skin, hair, or nail disorders related to these trips there is an increasing likelihood that Western physicians will be expected to treat exotic conditions imported from different countries. Tungiasis and furunculoid myiasis are two typical disorders of intertropical regions. They represent nuisances induced by the presence of arthropod larvae or eggs in the skin. We describe a case of tungiasis, caused by the sand flea Tunga penetrans (TP), and a case of myiasis, caused by Dermatobia hominis (DH), and briefly discuss the epidemiology, biologic life cycles, vectors, reservoirs, and clinical presentations of these parasites.