Jellyfish stings and their management: A review. In: Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide. Stay out of the water in jellyfish areas when jellyfish numbers are high. Talk to lifeguards, local residents or officials with a local health department before swimming or diving in coastal waters, especially in areas where jellyfish are common. Consider protective footwear, as stings can also occur while wading in shallow water. Diving stores sell protective "skin suits" or "stinger suits" made of thin, high-tech fabric. When swimming or diving in areas where jellyfish stings are possible, wear a wet suit or other protective clothing. The following tips can help you avoid jellyfish stings: Irukandji syndrome, which causes chest and stomach pain, high blood pressure, and heart problems.Delayed skin reaction, causing blisters, rash or other irritation. Possible complications of a jellyfish sting include: Swimming in a place known to have many jellyfish.Playing or sunbathing where jellyfish are washed up on the beach.Swimming or diving in jellyfish areas without protective clothing.Swimming when jellyfish appear in large numbers (a jellyfish bloom).They're most common in cooler, northern regions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.Ĭonditions that increase the risk of jellyfish stings: These are the world's largest jellyfish, with a body diameter of more than 3 feet (1 meter). This type has a blue or purplish gas-filled bubble that keeps it afloat. Also called bluebottle jellyfish, Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish live mostly in warmer seas. The more dangerous species of box jellyfish are in the warm waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Box jellyfish can cause intense pain and, rarely, life-threatening reactions. These jellyfish cause more-serious problems in people: Others can cause severe pain and a full-body (systemic) reaction. Many types of jellyfish are fairly harmless to humans. Jellyfish that have washed up on a beach may still release venomous stingers if touched. It affects the area of contact and may enter the bloodstream. The tube pierces the skin and releases venom. When you brush against a tentacle, tiny triggers on its surface release the stingers. Each stinger has a tiny bulb that holds venom and a coiled, sharp-tipped tube. Tentacles have thousands of microscopic barbed stingers. "We're a greater threat to them, than they are to us," says Yanagihara, who has experienced a box jellyfish sting several times and survived.Jellyfish stings are caused by brushing against a jellyfish tentacle. They are most active between November and April (jellyfish season). Box jellyfish numbers, as those of all jellyfish, are growing, exacerbated by warming oceans, and oxygen-depleting fertilizers that eventually find their way into the water. Yes, you don't want to experience a box jellyfish sting.īox jellyfish are among the oldest animals on the planet, dating back at least 600 million years, surviving several mass extinctions. In humans, however, Yanagihara says that digestive cocktail acts like a "molecular buckshot.causing holes in all our cells." A person's heart can stop in as little as five minutes. Instead, when a box jellyfish stings, it releases a "digestive cocktail" that helps the creature catch and digest its meals. Angel Yanagihara, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the world's foremost expert on box jellyfish, says that the box jellyfish does not release venom like a rattlesnake.
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