Sand flea disease is caused by female sand flea invading human limbs and skin parasitism, and the most common situation is that it penetrates into human body from soles of feet or toenails. Patients with this disease will be red and swollen first, then black and fester, and the state is very terrible. This disease needs to keep the environment clean and be prevented by wearing shoes that can wrap your feet. Experts say that if a 2-mm-big sand flea enters the body and feeds on blood, it can grow to 12 mm, and the surrounding body parts will start to rot.

Sand flea disease is raging in Uganda, Africa, causing 20,000 infections within two months, of which at least 20 people died. The people who live here are very poor. Many people are barefoot at ordinary times, and few people can afford shoes or even sandals. Exposed skin is susceptible to sand flea disease. Sand flea is a parasitic arthropod, which usually lives in soil and sand and feeds on the blood of warm-blooded hosts. Male sand fleas, like other fleas, leave their hosts after sucking blood. Female sand fleas will burrow their heads under the host's skin to parasitize and lay eggs, which will cause foot ulceration and even death during hatching. If not accepted in time, these wounds may be reinfected, which may be life-threatening in severe cases.