Alberta woman on jungle trek in Peru died from caterpillar poisoning, doctors announce
HELEN BRANSWELL
THE CANADIAN PRESS
July 14, 2008 at 4:38 PM EDT
TORONTO — 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 hemorrhaging in humans.
More:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080714.wcaterpiller0714/BNStory/National/home
Lonomia genus Brazil Field Guide to Venomous and Medically Important Invertebrates Affecting Military Operations:
Identification, Biology, Symptoms, Treatment
Version 2.0, 31 July 2006
http://www.afpmb.org/pubs/Field_Guide/field_guide.htm