I just read that a friend of ours was bitten by a brown recluse spider, (Loxosceles recluse). He’s got all the bad symptoms, big hole, blackened skin legion, surgeries. However, another friend pointed out that it is almost NEVER an actual brown recluse. So, I did a little reading….
In the year 2000, there were 300 reports in the Tampa area/central Florida and none were ever confirmed. Most of them turn out to be “I didn’t see what bit me” and they are blamed on the BR after the symptoms start to get ugly. Another doctor says that out of 1000 actual BR bites (nationwide), only about 12 turn into the big nasty infections we think of with a BR bite (hemolysis).
There has been no US deaths attributed to the Brown Recluse and in all of Florida, there has only been one confirmed BR bite and 2 other BR captures (without bite). All three were brought in from other territory. The BR does not live here in Florida.
Most bites are actually misdiagnosed and usually turn out to be:
“Tick-induced, Viral, Bacterial, Fungal, Blood Disorders, Underlying Disease States, Cancer, Reaction to Drugs/toxins, Topical, Miscellaneous/ Multiple Causative or Unknown Causative Agents.”
They say that a misdiagnosis can be a major problem because is causes unnecessary scaring and in some cases can case death because the actual cause is not being treated.
I hope they get this one right and I hope Tom (LBNG) gets better soon…
Leave a Reply