Explorers find disease-cursed City of the Monkey God and nearly lose their faces to flesh-eating parasite

TRENDINGReal estate | Justin Trudeau | Tory leadership race | Russia | Donald Trump 42 Comments Sort by Top Add a comment... Harvey Bushell Notes to self: - Remove La Mosquitia from list of possible vacation destinations. - Return new helper monkey. Like · Reply · 168 · Jan 13, 2017 4:16am MJ Karlsson · Calgary, Alberta That just might be one of the most priceless comments I have had the pleasure to stumble across. Thank you for that Harvey. I am still giggling at the latter point. Like · Reply · 16 · Jan 13, 2017 6:22am Anthony George I bought a flying monkey as a helper. It cost me $1.50 more than the regular monkeys. It would fly around my house hucking monkey poo at me. It wasn't real helpful, so I too got rid of it. Like · Reply · 11 · Jan 13, 2017 1:53pm Sheena Cooper · Ambassador at RENEW Scratch this one off the bucket list! Like · Reply · 3 · Jan 14, 2017 5:49am Show 2 more replies in this thread Steve Gagnon · University of Ottawa I got suspicious when I read that Leishmaniasis was "rare" since it is a common tropical parasitic infection, and easily treated. Check the CDC site. The symptoms don't include "losing your face". This is a great National Enquirer story, I am not sure why it is on National Post. Like · Reply · 11 · Jan 13, 2017 9:08pm George Adair · Owner / Inspector at Rampart Inspections Because it very well could be distraction news you know like...........SQUIRREL! Like · Reply · 11 · Jan 13, 2017 11:28pm Jeremy Chapman · Marketing Director at Playmates Toys, Inc. You should check the WHO website too... Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis leads to partial or total destruction of mucous membranes of the nose, mouth and throat. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the most common form of leishmaniasis and causes skin lesions, mainly ulcers, on exposed parts of the body, leaving life-long scars and serious disability. Remember that the CDC is US (i.e. rich people) focused, who get actual treatment. Like · Reply · 13 · Jan 14, 2017 3:56am Brian Driscoll · Kelowna, British Columbia Not so easily treated. If you're lucky, you'll be cured without disfiguration (or worse), though treatment is often a trial-and-error process via several differing modalities. Up to 50,000 people die of it every year, according to Wiki. Like · Reply · 4 · Jan 15, 2017 1:32am Show 3 more replies in this thread Walter Litvin Something to think about. When the ice melts at both of the poles we will probably we introduced to bacteria and viruses that have laid dormant for eons and will soon ravage the planet. That's what worries me because we don't have an immune system to combat these possibly new threats. Like · Reply · 8 · Jan 13, 2017 12:36pm Ariel Tay · Assistant Relocation Consultant at Sterling Singapore Sounds like the iTV drama Fortitude... Like · Reply · 2 · Jan 13, 2017 12:57pm Cassidy Vermeeren · Cambridge, Ontario Which could be a very good thing by deminishing human population to numbers more self-sufficient and have less of an impact on the world around them. Like · Reply · 2 · Jan 13, 2017 5:31pm Adam Docherty · São Paulo, Brazil Cassidy Vermeeren - starting with you and your family, right? Like · Reply · 15 · Jan 15, 2017 10:18am · Edited Show 8 more replies in this thread Candida Woodruff · Vaughan Road Collegiate This tempering with buried ancient cities of dome, could bring on disease to other parts of the world since people, who can afford it and are bored with the usual travelled destinations, will travel to these unusual and new discovered sites and bring these diseases back with them and the diseases will spread. Oh No, always something new to burden mankind with. Like · Reply · 9 · Jan 13, 2017 5:16am Navita Ryan · University of Waterloo Haha ooh noo! Like · Reply · 1 · Jan 13, 2017 8:14am Jack Petriconé · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I don't think anyone who read this article --- (particularly this passage: "Preston knows there are more secrets held within the White City’s ruins but after nearly losing his face, he doubts that it’s possible to go back and continue the excavation. “It’s just too dangerous,” he said. “And just getting in and out is dangerous.”) ---Thought to themselves, "That sounds like a wonderful place to go on holiday!" Like · Reply · 8 · Jan 13, 2017 9:01am Ian Monteith · University of Saskatchewan Unlikely the sand fleas would survive a Canadian winter. Like · Reply · 9 · Jan 13, 2017 11:16am Show 4 more replies in this thread Brian Driscoll · Kelowna, British Columbia After nearly losing his face, it is likely not so dangerous for Preston to return to the Monkey City. Surviving a bout of cutaneous leishmaniasis leaves him immune to reinfection. I wouldn't want to accompany him, however. Like · Reply · 4 · Jan 15, 2017 1:29am Alex Harris · Victoria, British Columbia Hahaha!^^^ priceless!!!! Like · Reply · Jan 15, 2017 6:07pm Alex Harris · Victoria, British Columbia Hahaha!^^^ priceless!!!! Like · Reply · Jan 15, 2017 6:07pm Shawna Kinman Yes, if he's lost most of his face, what does he have to lose now? lol He really should go back for the sake of humanity! Would it kill' em? Like · Reply · Jan 16, 2017 5:04am Load 10 more comments Explorers find disease-cursed City of the Monkey God and nearly lose their faces to flesh-eating parasite Republish Reprint Victor Ferreira | January 12, 2017 | Last Updated: Jan 14 8:43 AM ET More from Victor Ferreira | @VicF77 Aerial view of the Kaha Kamasa (White City, in Misquito language) archaeological site in La Mosquitia, northeast of Tegucigalpa, on January 12, 2016 ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty ImagesAerial view of the Kaha Kamasa (White City, in Misquito language) archaeological site in La Mosquitia, northeast of Tegucigalpa, on January 12, 2016 Twitter Google+ Reddit Email Typo? More Legend has it that the locals fled Honduras’ City of the Monkey God in the 16th century fearing that it had been cursed with disease. Five-hundred years later, a group of explorers excavating the lost city became the latest victims to incur the wrath of the monkey god when they nearly lost their faces to a flesh-eating parasite. “The parasite migrates to the mucous membranes of your mouth and your nose and basically eats them away,” Doug Preston, an author who documented the trip, said. “Your nose falls off, your lips fall off, and eventually your face becomes a gigantic, open sore.” ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty ImagesAerial view of the Kaha Kamasa (White City, in Misquito language) archaeological site in La Mosquitia, northeast of Tegucigalpa, on January 12, 2016. Honduras started a major archaeological dig for a mysterious, ancient "White City" supposedly hidden in jungle in its northeast that explorers and legends have spoken of for centuries. The group, made up of American and Honduran explorers and archeologists, announced they found the lost city, also known as the Ciudad Blanca or the White City, in 2015. The city earned its name, according to American explorer Theodore Morde, because of indigenous legends stating it contained a giant buried statue of a monkey god. Morde claimed to be the first to find the lost city after returning from an expedition, but died before he could return. Other legends speak of it as a “white house” or “place of cacao” from which no one has returned, according to National Geographic. After spending years searching, the team found the city’s ruins in the 32,000 km Mosquitia rain forest — with a stroke of good fortune. Searching through the thick vegetation with the assistance of a laser mapping system proved unsuccessful until the city was found when crew members noticed stone structures barely sticking out of the ground. ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty ImagesArchaeological pieces dug out at the Kaha Kamasa (White City, in Misquito language) archaeological site in La Mosquitia, northeast of Tegucigalpa, on January 12, 2016. Preston told CBS News that months after leaving the jungle, he noticed a bug bite that simply wouldn’t go away. And so did half his team members. Eventually, the National Institutes of Health diagnosed them with Leishmaniasis — a parasitic disease — and the team was forced to undergo treatment. The disease was contracted from sand fly bites. Once bitten, the parasites within the bugs can enter the human blood stream and begin eating away at the immune cells that normally kill bugs. Initial symptoms include fever and vomiting. If left untreated, Leishmania can result in horrible disfigurement. But long before they were infected with Leishmaniasis, the explorers nearly fell victim to the lethally poisonous snakes infesting the area. When a pit viper called the fer de lance made its way into their camp under the cover of darkness, a jungle warfare expert snapped into action. Flickr/Caspar S Flickr/Caspar SA fer de lance viper attacked the expedition crew in the middle of the night. “He pinned the snake,” Steve Elkins, one of the explorers, told CBS News. “But the snake exploded at that point into an absolute fury of striking everywhere, squirting venom, streams of venom across the night air.” Between the thick cover of vegetation, disease and venomous snakes, it would seem the monkey god was striking back at the outsiders for their attempts to find the long-lost city. In reality, the curse and resulting exodus from the White City coincide with a Spanish invasion in the 1500s that brought with them a wave of both slavery and disease. Before Preston and his crew discovered the city, it had remained one of the last unexplored places on the planet. ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images Within the city’s ruins, the team removed dozens of artifacts carved from stone and clay, including trays and a throne. Many were sculpted with snarling jaguar heads. It was one of the jaguar heads sticking out of the ground that first drew the attention of the explorers. The artifacts date back to 1000 and 1500 AD. Preston knows there are more secrets held within the White City’s ruins but after nearly losing his face, he doubts that it’s possible to go back and continue the excavation. “It’s just too dangerous,” he said. “And just getting in and out is dangerous.”