Let's talk about Tungiasis or as they are more commonly known in Kenya as, Jiggers. These are a type of sand flea that burrow in skin and the female fleas  lay eggs. This, as you can imagine, eventually leads to many different potential complications including severe bacterial infections, tetanus and even gangrene. If the jiggers are not treated they can lead to significant tissue damange and possibly amputation or death.

Jiggers live in typically tropical or sub tropical regions in the sand or muddy areas. They are commonly picked up in the feet when people wear open toed shoes, shoes with holes or if they dont have shoes to wear. They can also affect hands that touch affected surfaces, bottoms that sit on affected areas or any body part that comes in significant contact with them.

Unfortunatley they also survive in the home if someone brings them there....think about it as what we know head lice does...it gets a hold of one of the kids and suddenly we are checking and treating everyone and cleaning our house up and down...a similar action is taken with jiggers in a home, everything is cleaned and sprayed with a mixture of insecticide and Lysol.

However the skin treatment involves soaking the affected area in Potassium permanganate a purple cyrstal substance mixed with water, for 30 minutes per treatment, multiple treatments may be needed depending on the severity of the case.

One of the more common ways people aquire jiggers is , as noted, through their feet so we ensure anyone treated has a new pair of close toed shoes. We rely on both shoe donations and financial donations in order to purchase locally sourced, inexpensive shoes. This saves us having to pay to transport them AND puts money back into the local economy....even when we are aborad we subscribe to "shop local"....it only makes sense.

Jiggers can be painful and hard to manage. Unfortunately they often affect those who live in homes with poor sanitation or unsealed dirt floors. This is not something that can be erradicated or vaccinated against....the real management of this is treatment and shoes....pure and simple shoes. Treatment of affected areas until clear and healed as much as possible. Treatment of the entire home , both often require multiple treamtnet sessions and providing close toed shoes.

As I noted yesterday , the photos are difficult to see, thanks for reading so far. Just know that this is one area your donations go to, and man is it worth while.

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