Phoneutrism inside a protected area in the State of São Paulo

Benício, Ronildo Alves

doi:10.1590/0037-8682-0052-2017

Accidents caused by venomous animals represent a serious public health problem; however, cases of spider accidents are relatively poorly reported. Even in the Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical, including all six editions from 2016, only two papers were published on accidents involving scorpions¹1. Costa CLSO, Fé NF, Sampaio I, Tadei WP. A profile of scorpionism, including the species of scorpions involved, in the State of Amazonas, Brazil. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2016;49(3):376-9.^,²2. Almeida TSO, Fook SML, França FOS, Monteiro TMR, Silva EL, Gomes LCF, et al. Spatial distribution of scorpions according to the socioeconomic conditions in Campina Grande, State of Paraíba, Brazil. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop . 2016;49(4):477-85.and one involving snakes³3. Aragon DC, Queiroz JAM, Martinez EZ. Incidence of snakebites from 2007 to 2014 in the State of São Paulo, Southeast Brazil, using a Bayesian time series model. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop . 2016;49(4):515-9., but no information about spiders has been reported.

On December 6, 2015, a biologist field assistant was bitten by a spider of the genus Phoneutria (Figure 1A) while he was packing his bags inside his house. Soon after the accident, he began to experience intense local pain in the right hand, tingling, radiating pain to the right arm, and local sweating (Figure 1B); these symptoms were compatible with those of phoneutrism. On December 5, 2016, in the same protected area, seven specimens of spiders of the genus Phoneutria were found inside the house. The surroundings of the house contain open fields with great amounts of grass, which is a common environment to encounter several species of spiders.

This report describes actual observations of the risks of spider accidents to which biologists and researchers in general are subjected to during fieldwork and one case of phoneutrism inside a researcher’s house in a protected area in the State of São Paulo.

FIGURE 1:
Phoneutrism inside a protected area in the State of São Paulo: (A) spider of the genus Phoneutria found inside the researcher’s house; (B) local accident, with the right hand presenting local sweating.

REFERENCES

¹
Costa CLSO, Fé NF, Sampaio I, Tadei WP. A profile of scorpionism, including the species of scorpions involved, in the State of Amazonas, Brazil. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2016;49(3):376-9.
²
Almeida TSO, Fook SML, França FOS, Monteiro TMR, Silva EL, Gomes LCF, et al. Spatial distribution of scorpions according to the socioeconomic conditions in Campina Grande, State of Paraíba, Brazil. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop . 2016;49(4):477-85.
^3.
Aragon DC, Queiroz JAM, Martinez EZ. Incidence of snakebites from 2007 to 2014 in the State of São Paulo, Southeast Brazil, using a Bayesian time series model. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop . 2016;49(4):515-9.

Financial support: I thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Proc. 131905/2013-9, 142120/2015-4) and Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, Proc. 2015/11821-0) for financial support.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Jan-Feb 2018

History

Received
09 Feb 2017
Accepted
05 May 2017

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

[1] ¹
Costa CLSO, Fé NF, Sampaio I, Tadei WP. A profile of scorpionism, including the species of scorpions involved, in the State of Amazonas, Brazil. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2016;49(3):376-9.

[2] ²
Almeida TSO, Fook SML, França FOS, Monteiro TMR, Silva EL, Gomes LCF, et al. Spatial distribution of scorpions according to the socioeconomic conditions in Campina Grande, State of Paraíba, Brazil. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop . 2016;49(4):477-85.

[3] ^3.
Aragon DC, Queiroz JAM, Martinez EZ. Incidence of snakebites from 2007 to 2014 in the State of São Paulo, Southeast Brazil, using a Bayesian time series model. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop . 2016;49(4):515-9.