Irukandji syndrome
Encyclopedia : I : IR : IRU : Irukandji syndrome
Irukandji syndrome is a seldom fatal, but nevertheless painful condition induced by the sting of Carukia barnesi, the Irukandji jellyfish. The condition was given its name in 1952 by Hugo Flecker, after an aboriginal tribe (Irukandji) living in Palm Cove, north of Cairns, where stings are quite frequent.Flecker, H. "Irukandji" sting to north Queensland bathers without production of wheals but with severe general symptoms. Med J Aust 1952; 1: 89-91.
It includes an array of systemic symptoms including severe headache, backache, muscle pains, chest and abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, sweating, anxiety, and pulmonary edema. Most stings occur during the summer wet season in December-January. The sting itself is often barely noticed, but the symptoms will gradually become more intense in the following 20 minutes. In mild cases, symptoms may begin to resolve in 12-24 hours.
There is no antivenom and treatment is largely supportive with analgesia being the mainstay. Trials are underway to evaluate the effectiveness of magnesium sulfate as a treatment.
In 1964, Dr. Jack Barnes confirmed the cause of the syndrome to be a small Irukandji jellyfish, with a bell up to 2.5cm across. In order to prove that the jellyfish was the cause of the syndrome, he deliberately stung himself and his son and observed the symptoms. It is possible that other Cubozoa can cause Irukandji syndrome, but none such cases have been identified.
A paper from the Cairns Base Hospital lists 62 cases of Irukandji envenomation in 1996, with 2 victims developing pulmonary edema, presumably due to a direct myocardial depressant action of the toxin, or as a result of excessive catecholamine release.
The sting itself is only moderately irritating, the severe syndrome being delayed for 5-120 minutes (30 minutes on average). The severity of pain is apparent in a Discovery Channel show on Carukia barnesi when two researchers are stung. One remarked that she "wished she could rip her skin off", and she is later seen feverishly writhing in agony on her hospital bed. The other said he wished that he was stung by Chironex fleckeri instead since "the pain goes away in 20 minutes or you die (instead)". The pain from Carukia barnesi can last 2 weeks. When properly treated a single sting is normally not fatal, however, two people in Australia were believed to have died from Irukandji stings, greatly increasing public awareness of Irukandji syndrome. It is unknown how many other deaths from Irukandji syndrome have been wrongly attributed to other causes.
Footnotes
References
- Barnes JH. Cause and effect in Irukandji stingings. Med J Aust 1964; 1: 897-904.
- Little M, Mulcahy RF. A year's experience of Irukandji envenomation in far north Queensland. Med J Aust. 1998 Dec 7-21;169(11-12):638-41.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.