Gray and Pat Fagan, the manager of the county Community Services Department, said they have received no reports of the itch in any of the approved swimming areas on the river. He also said the only reported cases have been from the private park on the river where Bruni and her family swim, Weeki Wachee Hill Park.
"It's only a subcutaneous condition, and it's self-limiting." The rash usually fades in less than a week, he said. It causes severe itching, which he, like Bruni, compared to chiggers. Though there is a serious, even fatal strain of the disease found in other countries, the North American variety is relatively benign. Chigger bites produce inflamed welts on the skin. They are parasites of humans and animals.
The rash is caused by the bite of a worm that actually is a tiny snail larva that digs its way into the skin, Gray said. Chiggers are six-legged mite larva that live in tall grass or weeds. So far, the health department is not inclined to post such warnings, said Al Gray, the unit's director of environmental health. You need to prepare people who go swimming in that area," she said. "Even if they feel it is not life-threatening, it is aggravating, and it has caused people to be treated for it. For most of the summer, Bruni said, she and her family thought they had been cursed with several bad cases of chiggers.īruni said that the Hernando County Public Health Unit should warn swimmers of the danger. His pediatrician, Maria Doherty, diagnosed it as schistosomiasis this week. At least one of the sufferers, her 8-year-old nephew, got it bad enough that he needed treatment.
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