Jellyfish Stings

Description

Jellyfish are marine animals with long tentacles. These tentacles have stingers that can release venom when they touch the skin. Most stings occur when patients accidentally swim into the jellyfish or step on them on the beach. The main types of jellyfish are box jellyfish, Portuguese man-of-war, sea nettles and Lion's mane jellyfish. The majority of stings cause local skin pain, redness and swelling. Patients stung by the box jellyfish should seek immediate medical help since these reactions can be severe and can rarely be fatal. The dangerous species of box jellyfish are found in the Indian ocean and the Pacific ocean of Indonesia.

Symptoms

Most symptoms occur where the skin contacted the jelly fish and include immediate pain, reddish to brown tracks where the tentacles touched the skin, skin tingling, and itching. Rarely patients can have a severe and life threatening allergic reaction to the sting causing shortness of breath, facial swelling, vomiting, fainting and death.

Tests

A history and physical exam will be done. Unless there are life threatening symptoms no other tests will be done.

Treatment

First remove the tentacles and wash the affected area with sea water. Do not use fresh water as this may cause more venom to be released. Rinse the area briefly with vinegar. If vinegar is not available 70% isopropyl alcohol can be used. Other remedies include applying baking soda to the affected area. Over the counter pain medications can be used. For life threatening allergic reactions immediate medical attention is needed and epinephrine will be given. Box jellyfish stings should be treated by a medical professional as soon as possible since anti-venom may be required as well.

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