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Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem
Opportunistic scorpion species can colonize urban environments, establishing high-density communities that enhance the chances of human accidents. This scenario has been taking place in Brazil, in which some Tityus species have taken city centers, causing an explosion in the number of scorpion enven...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9910716/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36757916 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011069 |
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author | Guerra-Duarte, Clara Saavedra-Langer, Rafael Matavel, Alessandra Oliveira-Mendes, Barbara B. R. Chavez-Olortegui, Carlos Paiva, Ana Luiza Bittencourt |
author_facet | Guerra-Duarte, Clara Saavedra-Langer, Rafael Matavel, Alessandra Oliveira-Mendes, Barbara B. R. Chavez-Olortegui, Carlos Paiva, Ana Luiza Bittencourt |
author_sort | Guerra-Duarte, Clara |
collection | PubMed |
description | Opportunistic scorpion species can colonize urban environments, establishing high-density communities that enhance the chances of human accidents. This scenario has been taking place in Brazil, in which some Tityus species have taken city centers, causing an explosion in the number of scorpion envenoming cases. The characteristics of this scorpionism epidemic in Brazil is discussed in the present work. The number of Brazilian scorpion stings has surpassed 120,000 cases in 2017, and has been maintained above this number ever since, representing a more than 3-fold increase in 10 years, which was higher than the number of cases for most of the neglected tropical diseases in the country. The escalation in scorpionism cases is even higher in some regions of Brazil. Fortunately, the proportion of mild cases has also increased in the analyzed period, as well as the number of victims seeking for medical attention within the first hour after the accident. The species Tityus serrulatus, Tityus stigmurus, Tityus bahiensis, and Tityus obscurus are traditionally accountable for most of the scorpion accidents in different regions of Brazil, but other species deserve to be closely watched. Despite scorpionism being a notable health problem in Brazil, accident prevention and pest control regarding this venomous animal have not been properly addressed by the scientific community nor by policy makers. Therefore, this review also aims to point possible fields of research that could help to contain the aggravation of the current scorpionism landscape in Brazil. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9910716 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99107162023-02-10 Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem Guerra-Duarte, Clara Saavedra-Langer, Rafael Matavel, Alessandra Oliveira-Mendes, Barbara B. R. Chavez-Olortegui, Carlos Paiva, Ana Luiza Bittencourt PLoS Negl Trop Dis Review Opportunistic scorpion species can colonize urban environments, establishing high-density communities that enhance the chances of human accidents. This scenario has been taking place in Brazil, in which some Tityus species have taken city centers, causing an explosion in the number of scorpion envenoming cases. The characteristics of this scorpionism epidemic in Brazil is discussed in the present work. The number of Brazilian scorpion stings has surpassed 120,000 cases in 2017, and has been maintained above this number ever since, representing a more than 3-fold increase in 10 years, which was higher than the number of cases for most of the neglected tropical diseases in the country. The escalation in scorpionism cases is even higher in some regions of Brazil. Fortunately, the proportion of mild cases has also increased in the analyzed period, as well as the number of victims seeking for medical attention within the first hour after the accident. The species Tityus serrulatus, Tityus stigmurus, Tityus bahiensis, and Tityus obscurus are traditionally accountable for most of the scorpion accidents in different regions of Brazil, but other species deserve to be closely watched. Despite scorpionism being a notable health problem in Brazil, accident prevention and pest control regarding this venomous animal have not been properly addressed by the scientific community nor by policy makers. Therefore, this review also aims to point possible fields of research that could help to contain the aggravation of the current scorpionism landscape in Brazil. Public Library of Science 2023-02-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9910716/ /pubmed/36757916 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011069 Text en © 2023 Guerra-Duarte et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Review Guerra-Duarte, Clara Saavedra-Langer, Rafael Matavel, Alessandra Oliveira-Mendes, Barbara B. R. Chavez-Olortegui, Carlos Paiva, Ana Luiza Bittencourt Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem |
title | Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem |
title_full | Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem |
title_fullStr | Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem |
title_full_unstemmed | Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem |
title_short | Scorpion envenomation in Brazil: Current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem |
title_sort | scorpion envenomation in brazil: current scenario and perspectives for containing an increasing health problem |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9910716/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36757916 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011069 |
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