Jiggers Project

Feed The Children (UK) are bitting back at the Jiggers flea with the 'Stamp Out Jiggers' project.

This important campaign is aimed at stopping the Jigger - a nasty little flea  - from causing untold suffering, especially to children. It is a campaign we can win – but only with your help. Click on the links below to find out more and how you can help.

The Problem
The Effects
The Gruesome Bit
Treatment
Eradication/Prevention
How You Can Help
The Project In More Detail
Will You Help?

The Problem

The female sand flea (Tunga Penetrans), which is also known as the chigger, jigger, chigoe, bicho do pé or sand flea, (jigger in Uganda), is causing untold suffering to children. The female feeds by burrowing into the skin of its host. The flea’s abdomen becomes enormously enlarged so that it forms a round sac with the shape and size of a pea (click here for more detailed information – it’s a bit gruesome!).

Jiggers thrive where there are few made roads, dirt floors and animals mixing freely with people, normally found in the sandy terrain of warm, dry climates. It prefers deserts, beaches, stables, stock farms, and the soil and dust close to farms. Children are especially vulnerable because very few in our programmes have shoes, so their feet are in constant contact with soil and dusty floors.

Back to the top

The Effects

Heavy infestations can lead to severe inflammation, ulceration and fibrosis. Lymphangitis, gangrene, sepsis, the loss of toenails, autoamputation of the digits and even death are potential outcomes. The risk of secondary infection is high. Tetanus is a common secondary infection that has reported associations with death.

A clear effect of the attack is the inability to walk easily due to pain in the affected areas of the legs, inability to carry out normal day to day activities (work and walking to school for example), stigmatization by neighbours and low self esteem resulting from the stigmatization.

Another noted problem that may be caused by jigger infestation is the risk of passing on blood transmitted infections such as HIV / AIDS by using unsterilized equipment to remove the bugs from different people. It has been noted that many people can share a single pin to extract jiggers - a situation that exposes individuals to HIV infection from those who already have the virus.

Back to the top

The Gruesome Bit

The first evidence of infestation by this sand flea is a tiny black dot on the skin at the point of penetration. Because the flea is a poor jumper, most lesions occur on the feet, often on the soles, the toe webs, and around or under the toenails. A small, inflammatory papule with a central black dot forms early. Within the next few weeks, the papule slowly enlarges into a white, pea-sized nodule, multiple/severe infestations may result in a cluster of nodules with a honeycomb appearance.

While both male and female sand fleas intermittently feed on their warm-blooded hosts, it is the pregnant female flea that burrows into the skin of the host and causes the lesion. She attaches to the skin by her anchoring mouth and claws violently into the epidermis. The "black dot" of the nodule is the posterior end of the flea sticking out. The opening provides the flea with air and an exit route for faeces and eggs. With its head in the dermis, the flea begins to feed on the host's blood and enlarges up to 1cm in diameter. Over the next two weeks, over 100 eggs are released through the exposed opening and fall to the ground. 

The eggs hatch on the ground in 3-4 days. In the next 3-4 weeks, they go through their larval and pupae stages and become adults and the process starts all over again. The complete life cycle of a Tunga penetrans lasts about a month.

Back to the top

Treatment

The treatment consists of the extraction of the entire insect. The breaking of the jigger may cause inflammation and possible infection. The best recommended treatment for this kind of attack would be to soak the feet in a solution of alcohol for instance, hydrogen peroxide or the other commercial disinfectants like Dettol, Savlon, etc. A victim should soak their feet for about 15 minutes every day for about two weeks and this will completely kill the bugs.

Back to the top

Eradication/Prevention

For complete eradication of the flea, victims homes need to be thoroughly fumigated and any animals that also have the fleas treated. To ensure the home is bug free, the victim and the rest of the family have to be educated on the need to observe hygiene and ensure that the bugs do not find a home in their homes again.

The prime preventive measure against the Jigger is observing cleanliness. Wearing shoes is also encouraged to ensure the flea does not find a way into people’s feet. In infested areas, people should check their feet daily for freshly burrowing Jiggers, which are visible as minute black spots and cause an itchy sensation. The fleas may also be deterred by a repellent applied to the skin, although walking barefoot in dirt quickly removes it. If it is possible to locate the area of soil where Jiggers originate; it could be burnt off or sprayed with a suitable insecticide in an effort to kill the fleas.

Back to the top

How You Can Help

Please spare a thought for children in Africa whose education is disrupted when they can’t walk to school or whose lives are being crippled by this tiny flea.

Seeing the Jiggers work at first hand is not a pretty sight! You can’t fail to want to do something about it if you witness it. Feed The Children (UK)’s project involves health talks, sanitation campaigns and fumigation in 14 schools and 2,148 homes, helping over 13,000 people affected by this flea.

The total cost for the campaign over two years is £154,000, a small price when you consider the long term alternative of continuing to support children crippled by this preventable infection. The campaign needs to raise enough money in order to raise the profile of this little-known problem, generate public interest, and provide the resources for tackling the problem.

Back to the top

The Project in More Detail

The project is based in the community and schools and has clear objectives:

• To raise awareness of the problem and its scale worldwide.

• To raise funds to implement a solution for people affected by jiggers.

• To educate those affected by jiggers so they can take control of the problem and eradicate its affects.

• The solutions are simple:

• Eradicate the misery of jigger infection by controlling the pest in homes and schools. This can be achieved through:

• Concrete floors in schools,

• Fumigating houses and supplying disinfectant for soaking feet (a better solution than the home-spun remedy of digging them out with a pin).

• Educating the community on how to continue to control the jigger

Top pop rock band, The Hoosiers, communications company 3 and www.sunglassesforsport.co.uk have all donated prizes for our new campaign to help us stamp out jiggers. To read more about the Jiggers campaign and to see the new video, featuring The Hoosier's Cops and Robbers track visit the Jiggers competition and campaign page

Back to the top

Will You Help?

Now you know what the Jigger does, the suffering it causes and how you can help, will you donate to our project to Stamp Out Jiggers?

To take part in the Hoosier's Cops and Robbers campaign visit the Jiggers competition and campaign page