Summary
After centuries of use in wound-healing, the maggot is back. The rise of the drug-resistant superbug means fresh eyes are focused on the superpowers of the larvae of the greenbottle fly species, Lucilia Sericata. James Gallagher reports on the healthcare professionals who are turning to maggot therapy to help clean up wounds and stop infection.
He talks to Melanie who has Type 1 Diabetes and had a quarter of her foot amputated. When the skin around the wound started to die, threatening the whole limb, she was offered maggot therapy. Now a self-declared maggot superfan, Melanie watched as the larvae, inside a bag a bit like a teabag, digested the dead skin on her foot.
And James visits a factory in Wales, BioMonde, preparing medical grade fly eggs for use across the UK health service.
(Photo: Larvae of the greenbottle fly sitting on so-called horse blood agar seen through a magnifying glass at the pharmaceutical company BioMonde. Credit: David Hecker/DDP/AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:07.4 | How does he smell? |
| 0:08.4 | I paint. |
| 0:09.4 | Has he got any distinction features? |
| 0:10.8 | His anonymity. |
| 0:11.8 | But who is he? |
| 0:13.2 | What's his name? |
| 0:14.0 | Banksy. |
| 0:15.0 | Apparently I've mentioned twice. |
| 0:16.5 | The Banksy story. |
| 0:18.0 | Banksy's work is always about the human spirit versus the establishment. |
| 0:24.2 | Listen on BBC Science. |
| 0:26.4 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:34.4 | An original audio drama series from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:38.4 | Fukushima tells the story of the 2011 disaster. |
| 0:42.5 | At Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. |
| 0:46.1 | We lose the Daiichi plant. |
| 0:48.0 | Then we lose Japan as we know it. |
| 0:50.6 | Listen to the series now by searching for Fukushima, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:55.6 | Music |
| 0:59.6 | I could possibly be in the last couple of years of my life without those maggots. |
| 1:05.6 | And I don't think I'm being dramatic saying that. |
... |
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