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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...

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Autores principales: Guerra-Duarte, Clara, Saavedra-Langer, Rafael, Matavel, Alessandra, Oliveira-Mendes, Barbara B. R., Chavez-Olortegui, Carlos, Paiva, Ana Luiza Bittencourt
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
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.
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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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