Nandita Pal1, Bhuban Majhi2
1Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, Kolkata-20, West Bengal, India
2Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata-20, West Bengal, India
DOI: 10.4103/0976-9668.175106
ABSTRACT
A middle-aged female patient from West Bengal presented with complaints of redness, foreign body sensation, and watering for 2 days in the left eye. Slit lamp examination of the left eye revealed several minute white foreign bodies moving over the bulbar conjunctiva. Removal of the foreign bodies under local anesthesia, followed by microscopic examination, suggested the presence of first instar larvae of Oestrus ovis; the sheep nasal bot fly. Diagnosis of unilateral external ophthalmomyiasis was made. Such cases though very infrequently have been reported in the past from Southern and Central Part of India. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second report from Eastern India. A high index of suspicion is necessary both on the part of the clinician and the microbiologist for correct diagnosis.
Keywords: Oestrus ovis , ophthalmomyiasis externa, sheep nasal botfly, unilateral conjunctivitis.
