Maggot therapy employs the use of freshly emerged, sterile larvae of the common green‐bottle fly, Phaenicia (Lucilia) sericata, and is a form of artificially induced myiasis in a controlled clinical situation. Maggot therapy has the following three core beneficial effects on a wound: debridement, disinfection and enhanced healing. In part II of this review article, we discuss clinical infections and the evidence supporting the potent antibacterial action of maggot secretions. Enhancement of wound healing by maggots is discussed along with the future of this highly successful, often controversial, alternative treatment.

It is now a universally acknowledged fact that maggot therapy can be used successfully to treat chronic, long‐standing, infected wounds, which have previously failed to respond to conventional treatment. Such wounds are typically characterized by the presence of necrotic tissue, underlying infection and poor healing. Maggot therapy employs the use of freshly emerged, sterile larvae of the common green‐bottle fly, Phaenicia (Lucilia) sericata, and is a form of artificially induced myiasis in a controlled clinical situation. In this review article, we will discuss the role of maggots and their preparation for clinical use. Maggot therapy has the following three core beneficial effects on a wound: debridement, disinfection and enhanced healing. In part I we explore our current understanding of the mechanisms underlying these effects.

Objectives:The objective of this regional study across Wales was to perform a preliminary examination of Welsh emergency vehicles to determine levels of bacterial contamination.Methods:Specific sites within emergency vehicles were swabbed, before and after vehicle cleaning, over a 12 month period, on a monthly basis. All swabs were sent to pathology laboratories for culturing and analysis.Results:Results showed that most sites within emergency vehicles across Wales were contaminated with a range of bacterial species before vehicle cleaning. After vehicle cleaning, many sites in vehicles were still contaminated, and some sites that were previously uncontaminated, became freshly contaminated as a result of cleaning methods used.Conclusions:The authors conclude that the Welsh emergency vehicles examined exhibited an unacceptable level of bacterial contamination. This finding should be carefully considered and all attempts must be made to tackle the problem of vehicle cleanliness and infection control.

We conducted a small pilot study examining the opinions of school teachers across five Welsh primary schools on the possibility of introducing grand challenges (such as antibacterial resistance), and concepts to help solve such challenges (such as the use of living maggots to help treat infected wounds) to pupils at a young age. Our questionnaire-based study found that most teachers felt that this was indeed possible, with the majority feeling that pupils in Years 5 and 6 would be the most relevant and best years in which to introduce these concepts. With regards to introducing maggots to children as being positive and beneficial creatures, almost 50% of teachers felt that squeamishness may be present in children of all years, but that disgust and dislike of maggots would exist to a greater degree in older children. Our exploratory results suggest that with further research, this important biological concept could be introduced in the curriculum of primary schools, when perhaps less engrained negative perceptions, and more educated awareness of the positive benefits of using maggots as a treatment for wound infections may be achievable.