Honeybees and caterpillars: epidemiology of accidents involving these animals in the Criciúma region, southern Santa Catarina State, Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The present study aimed to acquire knowledge regarding some aspects of the epidemiology and injuries provoked by honeybees and caterpillars in southern Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Epidemiological information concerning accidents with both animals was prospectively collected from the System of Injury Notification Information (SINAN) files of the Municipal Health Secretary of the Criciúma region, Brazil. Between 1994 and 2006, 203 cases of accidents were registered, 149 provoked by honeybees (73.39%) and 54 by caterpillars (26.61%). The majority of the victims (200 cases) presented full recovery, two cases presented sequelae after recovery, and only one death was recorded in a case involving honeybee injury. The high frequency of victim recovery suggests that the public health system is efficient and the low frequency of sequelae after recovery also suggests that this system is fast and well developed. However, the low number of allergic people in this population should be considered as well as the severity level of the recorded accidents.

Arthropods the Medicinal Importance in Brazil: Retrospective Epidemiological Information about Accidents Involving these Animals

“…The majority of accidents occur in the warmest months, increase in the spring and summer seasons and turning to decrease in the last autumn and in months of winter. These pattern was extensively treated in others researchers [13,16,17] . Were recorded more than twice of accidents with arthropods in Urban area, 71.4% (n = 1,049) whereas only 28.6% (n = 420) were from rural areas ( Table 2).…”

“…This result shows that the SINAN files are not accurately filled. This issue is very mentioned in literature and two mainly difficulties are highlights: (i) The patient not carry the animal for the medical center toward possible the identification, or, (ii) The health agents are haven't able for this [13,17] . Another issue that needs to be discussed is the lack of commitment to the filling of SINAN form by the health agent [21] .…”

“…The principal bee that cause accidents in Brazil is the bees the Apis genus. Accidents with bees, wasps and ants may induce allergic reactions, causing great discomfort or even leading to death because many products of these insects are also capable of causing allergic responses in sensitized people [13] . None information about mainly genus of the wasps and ants is recorded, however, knows that the genus of ant Solenopsis, commonly known by the "fire ant" or washfeet, is medicinally important.…”

“…In Southern Brazil, epidemiologic studies are scarce, and no study has examined the epidemiologic profile of accidents with arthropods [13,17] . Thus, the aim of this study is to draw the epidemiologic profile of accidents with arthropods in Criciúma region, southern Santa Catarina state in Brazil and describe the clinical aspects of these accidents.…”

Relationship among Apis mellifera L. stings, swarming and climate conditions in the city of Rio Claro, SP, Brazil

“…Their colonies are installed in houses, walls and trees, which indicates a high degree of synanthropism (7). Hence, the number of accidents caused by bee stings has increased in recent years (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Escher et al (18) and Malaspina et al (19) reported a large number of patients treated in emergency centers in São Paulo state, affected by allergic reactions to Hymenoptera venom, and observed that 32% of them were victims of bee stings, 37% of wasp stings and 31% of ant stings.…”