By Mary Kekatos Health Reporter For Dailymail.com
Published: 17:49 BST, 1 April 2019 | Updated: 17:50 BST, 1 April 2019
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A 10-year-old girl caught a gruesome infection on the soles of her feet after walking through a pigpen without shoes on.
In a case report featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors presented the case of the girl, who visited a primary care clinic who'd had papules and lesions on her feet and toes for 10 days.
Her family told the medical team that they had traveled to rural Brazil two weeks earlier and the girl had played in a pigsty without wearing shoes.
That's when doctors diagnosed her with a parasitic infection caused by sand fleas that burrow themselves in the skin.
The infection is known as Tungiasis, an inflammatory skin disease caused by a sand flea known as Tunga penetrans.
The fleas are native to Central and South America and the infection
