The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the first human case of a flesh-eating parasite in the U.S. Here's what you need to know about New World screwworm.

HHS said the last time NWS was detected in animals or livestock in the United States was in the Florida Keys in 2017.

The person, who received treatment in Maryland, is the first confirmed case in the U.S. of New World screwworm, a parasite that eats cattle and other warm-blooded animals alive, since an outbreak began to escalate and move northward from Central America and southern Mexico late last year.

The first human case of New World screwworm was confirmed in the United States after a Maryland resident was diagnosed earlier this month.

A person in Maryland has been diagnosed with an infection of the flesh-eating New World screwworm. It's the first case in the U.S. in decades.

The patient with the first human infestation of travel-associated New World screwworm in the United States has recovered from the flesh-eating parasite, and there was no sign of transmission to other people or animals,