Yes, you can die from the sting of bees and wasps, but also from hornets and other insects with stings. It happened last year to Gunther Mair, a 61-year-old from Trentino, a former goalkeeper known in the football world, stung by some wasps on Friday 7 August 2020 in the Piné woods, near his home. And it is not such an isolated case: in Italy between 10 and 20 deaths are caused by hymenoptera stings every year, precisely bees, wasps and hornets. About twenty people out of a total of about 5 million Italians who are stung every year and resort to emergency room care, with mostly localized reactions (dal 2.4% al 26%) ma sometimes even generalized (from 1% to 8.9%) and such as to lead to death due to respiratory or cardiovascular complications (the data is from the “Punto nel vivo” Campaign of Asst Lariana).
How can you die from the sting of bees and wasps?
How is it possible die from the sting of bees and wasps? First you need to know that an attack by a swarm of bees, wasps or hornets is not necessary to cause death. Can even the sting of a couple of insects is enough to trigger anaphylactic shock which leads to death. Fortunately, this does not happen in all people: if most people, adults and children, experience mild allergic reactions such as burning, redness, itching and pain in the area of the sting, for 30-50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with a percentage of the population at risk up to 15%, the hymenoptera sting can be fatal due to a specific allergy to some components of their venom.
Many of these people know they are allergic and therefore always have adrenaline, or rather the anaphylaxis emergency kit, with them. In a emergency insect bite kit such as bees, wasps and hornets are usually included three medicines to treat the insect sting immediately: usually there are a preparation based on cortisone it’s a antihistamine fast-acting that are used to decongest and precisely a self-injecting syringe of adrenalinewhich serves to stabilize blood pressure and blood circulation in a few minutes.
For those who do not know they are at risk, it is important to know recognize the signs of excessive infection which can have serious consequences: if the skin reaction is much more extensive than the area of the sting, perhaps up to affecting an entire limb, if it lasts for hours, and certainly beyond 24 hours, reaching its maximum peak around 48 hours, if other reactions such as fever, nausea, vomiting and tiredness then it is the case to quickly resort to an emergency room or a doctor.
In fact, these reactions and manifestations are usually the prodrome of more serious complications such as skin reactions all over the body, asthma and respiratory crises with swelling of the larynx at the level of the vocal cords which can also lead to difficulty speaking or hoarseness, problems with the cardiovascular system with drops in blood pressure, tachycardia and convulsions. All signals that anaphylactic shock is in progress caused by the venom injected by an insect sting.
Sting by bees and wasps: what to do?
But what to do in the event of a sting from bees and wasps or other potentially poisonous insects such as hornets? First of all you should have readiness and cold blood to remove the stinger immediately with the fingertips, nails or tweezers but without “squeezing it”: the poison is in fact progressively injected for about 20 seconds, and every second less is a little less poison in the body. Possibly it should also apply something cold, like ice, but this is not always possible if for example you are in a forest during an excursion (but for example it can work to immerse the interested part in a stream or river or under a water fountain, if is cold and available). If you have a first aid kit with you (which is always recommended) you can apply a cortisone-based ointment on the affected area, or perhaps give a pain reliever or antihistamine by mouth. At this point there are two possibilities: the allergic reaction is moderate, and so it is kept under control for the next few hours, perhaps even under the supervision of a doctor; the allergic reaction grows in importance and then it is necessary to proceed with the injection of adrenaline subcutaneously, usually in the thigh area, to curb the reaction and stabilize the person’s condition. Alternatively, and especially for children, there are adrenaline administration kits to press on the skin in the sting area, easy to use, quick and effective.
How to avoid hymenoptera bites
Avoiding bee and wasp stings isn’t always possible, and it’s one of the least dangerous risks of being in nature. However, there are behaviors that in certain situations, such as that of a walk, can attract these hymenoptera more. For example the intense odors, such as those of perfume or some deodorants, they can bring bees, wasps and hornets, as well as the very intensely colored clothes and sudden frightened movements when they buzz around us. And of course it’s good to stay away from bushes and shrubs where you can hear the typical insect buzz.
Photo di Capri23auto / Victor Grabarczyk
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2023-06-30 09:14:12
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