Mexico registered 10 human cases of screwworm in the last seven days, including two in Yucatán, where the disease has spread to an eleventh municipality, the Mexican Ministry of Health (SSA) reported on Monday, January 26, 2026.
Yucatán is the only one of the three states on the Yucatán Peninsula with new cases of myiasis caused by the fly Cochliomyia hominivorax, whose larvae are known as screwworms.
In the most recent week, Chiapas was the hotspot, with four people infected with screwworm; followed by Oaxaca, with three; Yucatán, with two; and Veracruz, with one.
With these new cases, Chiapas now has a total of 98 human cases of screwworm infestation from March 2025 to January 2026; Yucatán, 14; Quintana Roo and Oaxaca, six each; Campeche, four, and Tabasco and Veracruz, two each.
In just one week, this disease increased by 45.5%, rising from 122 to 132 confirmed cases in Mexico.
Cattle screwworm in Yucatán: two new cases
According to the Ministry of Health (SSA), the two new cases in Yucatán are:
1) A 60-year-old man hospitalized in Mérida, a municipality 13.4 kilometers west of Tixpéhual, where he lives, because the screwworm infested his lower right extremity. He also suffers from alcoholism.
2) A 76-year-old man hospitalized in Motul, where he lives, for myiasis in one eye. His comorbidities are hypertension and basal cell carcinoma (sun-exposed skin).
These are the only two currently hospitalized. For the first time, the SSA reported today that 12 patients have been discharged due to improvement. A week ago, eight people were hospitalized (four in Mérida, three in Tekax, and one in Umán), two were receiving outpatient treatment from doctors in Mérida and Ticul, and only two had been discharged.
The two new cases are the first human case of screwworm in Tixpéhual and the second in Motul.
Source: yucatan
