Serious complications have been observed in several patients after spider bites in the Perpignan region.
Has global warming already tipped France over to countries where poisonous spiders and other frightening bugs are rife? Information that comes to us from the Pyrénées-Orientales in any case sows doubt among doctors and arachnologists, and panic among arachnophobes.
At least four cases of bites, with relatively serious consequences, have indeed been identified at the Saint-Pierre clinic in Perpignan, report France Bleu Roussillon. “We had never seen that before,” wonders Dr. Anne Ricart, who works in the clinic.
Bite on one of the victims, a few hours and a few days later (Laetitia, France Bleu)
Pain, infection, necrosis
The southern media describes the ordeal of Véronique, a resident of Vinça, a small village located a few tens of kilometers from Perpignan. “I thought it was a mosquito,” she explains. But at night I had such pain that my husband took me to the emergency room. It burns, it really hurts. “
“The patients present with an infected wound, rather red and large,” continues the doctor. There may also be a black plaque, a necrosis in the center of the red space ”. A slight fever also sets in sometimes, but not serious, she emphasizes. The vital prognosis is therefore not at stake, but the problem is not trivial for those affected.
When the wound necrosis (Wikimedia Commons)
The French jungle
These bite complications, however, remain unusual for the region. And they sow discord between doctors and arachnologists. Doctors, faced with the symptoms, believe that the critters responsible are fiddler spiders, also called brown recluses. Specialists oppose that this spider, native to the southern United States, has never been seen in France. In the meantime, nasty beasts attack man!
Because certain poisonous species are very present on the metropolitan territory. The “false black widow” is well established in our latitudes. In the south of France, and even as far as London, where a wind of panic had blown a few years ago, even leading to the closure of a school.
It is also present in Paris too, if we are to believe the mishap of a fellow journalist. On his Twitter account, he relayed a photo of the assailant, quickly identified as a false black widow. Bitten during the night of August 2, the violent pains lasted about twenty hours.
Serious post-mortem question: what species does this specimen belong to? pic.twitter.com/SqBASfF3xs
– Florian Gouthière ???? (@Curiolog) Aug 2, 2017
#DocTocToc Persistent stabbing pain 20 hours after bite by Steatoda nobilis. Must amputate?
– Florian Gouthière ???? (@Curiolog) Aug 2, 2017
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