Irukandji

I know they say dinamite comes in small packages, but this one is a real killer.  And I mean that literally.  Irukandji - one of the box jellyfish family. With bell and tentacles just 2.5 centimetres across, it is almost impossible to detect.  Irukandji is the name of an aboriginal tribe that once lived in the area around Cairns in north Queensland.  At the moment they are found mostly around Northern Australia, around the Barrier Reef, but they have been detected in most of the Pacific basin and even as far as Florida  I mean the jellyfish, not the aboriginals.  They are small enough to slip through the nets that have been put up around Australian beaches to keep jellyfish out. 

Which poses a rather big problem.  The sting of the Irukandji is leathal. Symptoms are vomiting, sweating, headache, agitation, rapid heart beat, high blood pressure, excruciating pain and of course death.  There is no anti venom as yet, but there is an curios treatment.  Doctors have started giving Magnesium infusions to people suspected of being stung by the minute Irukandji, and it seems to be working.  Despite or maybe just because it is such an inexpensive everyday procedure.  Of course the first thing you do after being stung, (after freaking out) is put some vinegar on the affected area.  This will deactivate any unfired nematocysts on the skin.  That means any cells that have not discharged their venom.

From 1883 to late 2005, the box jellyfish accounted for at least 70 recorded deaths.  In January 2002, a tourist swimming near Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays died after being stung by a jellyfish. His death was reported by the press to have been caused by an irukandji.   The 58-year-old man had a pre-existing medical condition that made a jellyfish sting fatal. He had a valve replacement and was taking warfarin to thin his blood. After he was stung, his blood pressure increased which caused a brain hemorrhage leading to his death.

Which makes me think this is another one of those H1N1 cases, where the afliction exaggerates an already existing condition.  Over 60 people are taken to hospital with stings every year, how many of them are completely healthy?  I agree that people should be made aware of the dangers of Irukandji.  Especially since its started to spread due to global warming.  Pretty soon a lot more water in the ocean will be warm enough for these creatures to live in.