The Centre for Health Protection has confirmed the year's sixth human myiasis case, involving an 84-year-old Tin Shui Wai woman.

She was admitted to Tuen Mun Hospital September 4 with bleeding and maggots in her nose. Her condition is stable.

Human myiasis cases are caused by parasitic maggots of flies which infest the superficial wounds and body orifices such as mouth, ear and nose of debilitated people with larvae. The larvae feed on the host's dead or living tissue, and may cause serious tissue damage, resulting in loss of function, injury to the skin, secondary invasion and death.

Hong Kong saw 15 human myiasis last year, six in 2005 and eight in 2004. Click here for prevention tips.