Matequenha, (Ma-ti-cain-ya) not sure how one spells it but everyone has it . Tungiasis medical term. Little tiny fleas -yes that is the point of a needle no bigger then a speck of dust. 
They burrow under your first layers of skin munch on you and make a nest usually on your toes. But they aren’t fussy, under your toenail or the cracks in your skin of your heal will do just fine. Even just the normal wrinkle in the sole of your foot- if you have good foot hygiene and cracks aren't available. Your sign that this is happening to you is -an itch that you may or may not notice, that turns into a furious itch that you just want to cut your toe off to be done with it. If you bump your toe and the pain shoots up to the razor blades in the back of your eyeballs is a good tale tale sign as well. After a day or two if you haven't already figured it out they are munching your flesh, your toe may get a bit sore and red and you’ll wonder what the deal is. With untrained eye you probably won’t see anything until they are well ripe. By then you have a red weeping spot with something obviously under your skin. Pull out a needle and pick at it like you would an infected splinter and what you will find is a BB or even pea sized sack full of little eggs. If you caught it at its starting stages the sack is as big as a grain of sand. Don’t break the sack it gets messy, eggs all over everywhere, the ruptured sack is hard to get out. The sign that you took it all out nicely -sack and all- is that you have a nice crater in your skin to heal up. If you did not notice anything or avoided picking it out (which many people don’t) that sack breaks open and the fleas forge new frontiers on your feet, the great toe rush. Among the local population many people don’t bother with them (WHY I don’t know) so it is common to see people walking around very gingerly, toes curled up, in obvious pain their entire foot just one huge sore, literally dislodging the toenails.  
I heard a story of a guy that died of Matequenha, he was a person that lived on the streets and had it on his entire body. They overwhelmingly are on your feet but will go anywhere they come in contact with. For instance under your finger nail is common as well (remember you were absentmindedly scratching your feet? Don't bite your finger nails!) We had a plague of these a few years ago and they have come back again. I was picking 10 a day out of my sore feet. They are miserable creatures. Oh an added bonus is that once you have picked them out -the sore/crater is a neon sign yelling 'VANCANCY' to all the others. You know that crater you have now from picking one out? (or any other sore on your foot)-- really saves the work for the mataquenha having to bore into your skin-- quite convenient for him really!! Nothing as smooth as moving into a preburrowed home. The only thing I have found that gets rid of them is putting your feet in dog dip. The locals will soak their feet in gasoline, or buy insecticide (powder or spray) put it on their feet then put their feet in plastic bags for a few hours. So a past time just as you tuck yourself into bed or really anytime -looks like yoga- a person in all sorts of positions closely trying to see or pick, at the bottom of their feet, or between their toes or the back of their heel.  Like monkeys grooming each other picking out mataquenha works as well . |
