There have been no reports of locally acquired human screwworm infestations in the United States, according to the CDC's situation summary. That is the most important fact in a story widely misread as an outbreak of flesh-eating parasites infesting Americans.
The single US human case, confirmed in August 2025, was travel-associated, in a patient who had returned from El Salvador. The animal outbreak is real. USDA confirmed the first domestic animal case of the current outbreak on June 3, 2026, in Texas, and detections have since been recorded in additional Texas counties and in New Mexico.
