Various methods were tried to treat wounded soldiers during the First World War. Among the most common treatments used by healthcare professionals at the time were fly larvae embedded in the skin in teabag-style bags, where they ate dead tissue and secreted so-called antimicrobial molecules. This method is among the methods applied by people who are looking for natural treatment methods, especially in England.
RELIEVES THE NEED FOR ANTIBIOTICS
Healthcare professionals hope the therapy can help counter the global superbug threat that has been solemnly compared to terrorism and climate change, a crisis that has a potentially catastrophic impact on society. Attaching maggots to infected wounds eliminates the need for antibiotics, which can encourage bacteria to mutate and become resistant to life-saving drugs.
THE EVENT OF ANTIBIOTICS FORGOTTEN THIS TREATMENT METHOD
The use of maggots to clean wounds first became popular in the First World War, when field surgeons discovered that soldiers whose wounds were infested with larvae healed faster. The advent of medical antibiotics in the 1940s largely obsolete treatment.
Research shows it is effective and affordable in treating hard-to-heal wounds, and the NHS adopted it as a treatment in 2004. Professor Yamni Nigam, an entomologist at Swansea University, said: “The maggots are very efficient and cost effective. They can turn a stagnant wound that refuses to heal for months – in four days they can transform a wound.”
HOW DO MAGGLES HEAL THE WOUND?
One of the most important things maggots can do is disinfect a wound. If you have a chronically infected wound, putting maggots will remove the dead tissue.
Maggots can be applied to infected tissue to feast on bacteria and dead cells in chronic wounds. The larvae not only clean the wound, but also increase the chance of recovery.
A little nauseating, this ancient therapy has actually been used since Bible times, but was discredited when antibiotics were discovered.
Maggots were also used to prevent gangrene during the American Civil War.
In the French trenches of the First World War, doctors noticed that wounds containing maggots became less infected and healed faster, so soldiers were less likely to die from their wounds.
THE NUMBER OF USERS IS INCREASING
NHS Digital data shows that the number of maggot treatments administered in the UK has increased by nearly 50 percent over the past decade. Still, experts fear that nurses’ “looseness” may deter them from spreading treatment more widely.