© Godfrey Olukya/Associated PressA 40-year-old man in eastern Uganda shows hands and feet infested by flea-like, blood-sucking jiggers. At least 20 Ugandans have died, and more than 20,000 have been sickened in just two months. Uganda's government has allocated $1 million to fight the epidemic.
A disease with progression and symptoms that seem straight out of a horror movie has killed at least 20 Ugandans and sickened more than 20,000 in just two months.
Jiggers, small insects that look like fleas, are the culprits in the epidemic, which causes parts of the body to rot. They often enter through the feet. Once inside a human, they suck blood and multiply by the hundreds. Affected body parts -- buttocks, lips, even eyelids -- rot away.
James Kakooza, Uganda's minister of state for primary health care, said jiggers can easily kill young children and cause early deaths in grown-ups with other diseases.
The parasitic disease, named tungiasis, also exists in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Some affected people in rural Uganda, such as Dakaba Kaala, 60, say they are bewitched and simply wait to die.
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