Successful use of heat as first aid for tropical Australian jellyfish stings

Mark Little; Richard Fitzpatrick; Jamie Seymour

doi:10.1016/j.toxicon.2016.10.003

Successful use of heat as first aid for tropical Australian jellyfish stings

Toxicon. 2016 Nov:122:142-144. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2016.10.003. Epub 2016 Oct 6.

Authors

Mark Little¹, Richard Fitzpatrick², Jamie Seymour³

Affiliations

¹ FACEM MPH &TM DTM & H Department of Emergency Medicine, Cairns Hospital, Cairns, Australia; Queensland Tropical Health Alliance School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University, Australia. Electronic address: angie-mark@bigpond.com.
² Queensland Tropical Health Alliance, James Cook University, Cairns Campus, Mcgregor Road, 4878, Cairns, Australia.
³ Queensland Tropical Health Alliance, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Centre for Biodiscovery & Molecular Development of Therapeutics, Queensland Emergency Medical Research Foundation, Faculty of Medicine, Health & Molecular Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns Campus, Mcgregor Road, 4878, Cairns, Australia.

PMID: 27720978
DOI: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2016.10.003

Abstract

Currently the Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) recommends dousing with vinegar followed by ice as first aid for jellyfish stings in tropical Australia, with limited evidence to support this recommendation (Li et al., 2013). We report our successful experience in using hot water immersion as first aid in treating two people stung by venomous tropical Australian jellyfish, one by Chironex fleckeri and one by Carukia barnesi.

Keywords: Carukia barnesi; Chironex fleckeri; Cubozoan; First aid; Hot water; Jellyfish.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Australia
Bites and Stings / therapy*
Cnidarian Venoms
First Aid*
Hot Temperature*
Humans

Substances

Cnidarian Venoms