South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Source of hookworm infections unknown
A day of beach fun and sun turned into an ordeal this summer when several teens noticed something irritating their skin: They all had hookworms.
The members of Church of Christ at White Station in Memphis had visited the beaches of Hollywood and Pompano Beach and a soccer field at their Pompano Beach hotel, where the teens played barefoot in the rain.
After receiving reports about the gruesome parasites, health officials set out to learn all they could about what happened to the church group members. Where did they get infected? How did it happen? Several parts of the mystery remain unsolved.
Health officials could not find any hookworms at the beach sites visited by the church group, according to a newly released report from the Florida Department of Health in Broward.
Kelli Dumas, a dentist from Memphis, had posted on Facebook about her son Michael’s infection, leading to national news stories about how the nematodes attacked the boy after friends buried him in the sand on Pompano Beach. “He is in pain and this is awful,” Dumas wrote on Facebook. “Never be buried in sand or allow your children to be either.”
Hookworms are intestinal parasites that like warm, moist climates. Their eggs can be passed through feral animal feces that may contaminate sand or soil. Infections typically spread when people walk barefoot on a contaminated site.
Some patients with hookworms experience abdominal pain, especially those infected for the first time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms in severe cases include diarrhea, loss of appetite and weight loss. There can be severe itchiness and raised red lines because of the larva in the skin. The infestation is treatable with medicine.
“The larva will die in the skin after several weeks without developing any further, and the itchiness and red lines will go away,” the report said.
After the case this summer came to light, investigators made questionnaires for the adults and the teens’ parents, asking which symptoms were showing on those infected, according to the report. That helped narrow the list of possible sites where the infections happened.
The group visited Miami-Dade on the first day of their trip, then went to Broward. They went to the beach in Hollywood for several hours, where five group members buried their feet in the sand. The group also visited the beach in Pompano on more than one occasion for several hours.
Of the five people who showed symptoms, four said they had symptoms either on their feet, ankles or the lower part of their legs. The fifth person, the teen who was buried up to his neck in sand, had symptoms on other body parts, too.
As part of their search, health officials also were on the lookout for reports of dogs or cats wandering the sands. That’s because hookworms can be transmitted through the feces of an infected animal.
“Based on the limited number of interviews, no animals being
observed, or animal waste being found, the multiple locations visited by the group, we were unable to identify the location of exposure,” said the health department’s report.
Besides the five members of the group who displayed symptoms of infection, there were no other hookworm cases reported to state or local health departments, the report said.
Pompano Beach spokeswoman Sandra King said city officials were relieved the source of the outbreak could not be found in the city.
“We … feel somewhat vindicated that the State’s investigation concluded that the hookworm could have been obtained somewhere other than the City of Pompano Beach based on the activities of the youth and his friends who were barefoot in multiple locations in South Florida during their stay,” King said. “Approximately 3 million people visit our beach every year and we’ve never received a complaint of a similar occurrence.”
Kelli Dumas told the South Florida Sun Sentinel
in July that she was confident Michael contracted the parasites on the beach. She could not be reached Thursday by phone or Facebook Messenger.
At the time, Dumas had shared graphic pictures of her son’s swelling and reddened feet and detailed the cost of his treatment, including a steroid medicine that cost more than $1,300 for six pills.
In 2010, the Miami-Dade Health Department linked an outbreak of hookworm to stray cats living at the beach.
At least six cases were confirmed, with a dozen more suspected.
Hookworms used to be fairly common in the U.S., but improvements in living conditions have greatly reduced the number of infections, according to the CDC.
ljtrischitta@ sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4233 or Twitter @LindaTrischitta