Poisonous Amazon caterpillars kill Canadian
July 15, 2008
It was a freak encounter with tragic consequences.
A Canadian woman who had travelled to South America last year died 10 days after stepping, barefoot, on venomous caterpillars, a team of Edmonton doctors reported Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Her case should be a cautionary tale for people embarking on exotic trips to far-flung places, her doctors and others suggest.
“Obviously the more exotic we get in where we travel, the more opportunities there are that we’re going to interface with bizarre things,” said Dr. Kevin Kain, a Toronto-based travel and tropical medicine expert who did not treat the woman but was asked to comment on the report.
“There are some bad things out there. They’re rare, but they’re bad.”
The woman, who was in northeastern Peru on an organized jungle trek, accidentally stepped on five caterpillars of the Lonomia genus, which secrete a toxin that causes haemorrhaging in humans.
There are two species of the caterpillars known to cause haemorrhagic syndromes in humans. Found in parts of South America, including Venezuela and Brazil, the insects emit venom through bristles or hairs that cover their bodies and have been blamed for many deaths in the Amazon.
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Ouch! Thanks to your post, I just looked at some pics of the culprits. They have so much camouflage, it would be hard to see them. My question is about her being barefoot in the jungle, which on my trips to IQT I have always been told not to do. A sad story, she was only 22, but a cautionary tale for people traveling off the beaten path…
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
I thought caterpillars were not poisononus I thought they were harmful. That’s what i learned in science last year I’m in 8th grade this year.
I used to collect caterpillars becuase I thought they were interesting now that I heard that there are poisononus caterplillars beacause I will never know that they are poisononus or not LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i thouth catipillers were harmful and nice creatures i did not think they could be posines because there so cute and soft and cuddley how could they be posines i can’t belive that this is true you would think catipillers did not hurt or be posines this is crazy i can’t belive this is really true. LOL