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01 - Importance 11

This document discusses the medical importance of arthropods and how they can affect human and animal health. It outlines how arthropods can directly cause disease or discomfort through entomophobia, annoyance and blood loss, accidental injury, envenomization, dermatosis, myiasis, and allergy. Specific examples are provided for black widow spider bites and brown recluse spider bites. Arthropods can also indirectly impact health as vectors that transmit pathogens and parasites.

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Arianna Christine
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40 views7 pages

01 - Importance 11

This document discusses the medical importance of arthropods and how they can affect human and animal health. It outlines how arthropods can directly cause disease or discomfort through entomophobia, annoyance and blood loss, accidental injury, envenomization, dermatosis, myiasis, and allergy. Specific examples are provided for black widow spider bites and brown recluse spider bites. Arthropods can also indirectly impact health as vectors that transmit pathogens and parasites.

Uploaded by

Arianna Christine
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Medical Importance of

Arthropods

How Arthropods Affect the Health


and Well-being of Humans and
Animals

Direct Agents of Disease or


Discomfort

Entomophobia & delusory parasitosis.


Annoyance & blood loss.
Accidental injury to sense organs.
Envenomization.
Dermatosis.
Myiasis.
Allergy.

Entomophobia & Delusory


Parasitosis

Bites of Cable bug or Cable


Mite

Lesions

Annoyance and Bloodloss

Accidental Injury to Sense


Organs
Insects may accidentally enter eye or ear.
Some insects produce irritating secretions.
Some insects have spines that may injure the
eye.
Example: sheep bot fly larva
Some produce irritating hairs which may enter
the eye.

Envenomization

Black Widow Spider


Neurotoxic venom affects the neuromuscular
junctions.
The main signs and symptoms of Latrodectism:
sharp burning pain at the site
pain spreads to lymph nodes within 15 minutes
severe muscle pain and cramps within an hour,
resulting in tightness in the chest and difficulty with
walking.
anxiety, sweating, fever, slurred speech, nausea
and headaches.

What to do when someone is


bitten
Keep the culprit if possible.
Keep the patient or the affected part as motionless as
possible.
Eating, drinking and smoking should be avoided.
Keep the patient on his/her back with feet raised
above the rest of the body.
Loosen tight clothing
Apply artificial respiration should breathing stop.
Apply crushed ice to the affected area. The cold
helps to retard the venom action and reduces pain.
This must be done within minutes of being bitten.

What NOT to do when


someone is bitten
Use alcoholic drinks as this could mask certain
symptoms or exacerbate them.
Use potassium permanganate on the wound.
Cut the wound.
Use a tourniquet as this could aggravate local effects
of the venom.
Use snakebite venom on spider and scorpion bite
patients.

Brown Recluse
Spider Bites
Severity of reaction related to amount of

venom injected and individual sensitivity to it.
Effects may be nothing at all, immediate or delayed.
Many not aware of bite for several hours, others may
feel a stinging sensation followed by intense pain.

3 days

2 weeks

4 months

BR Spider Venom
Can cause major tissue necrosis.
A dermonecrotic factor disrupts cell
membranes.
Other enzymes are present in venom.
Patient immune response to antigens in
venom may be responsible for necrosis.
Complications related to location of bite.
Areas with subcutaneous fat have higher
complication rates.

Treatment for BR Spider Bite


Conservative: rest, ice and elevation.
Cooling limits activity of enzymes, heat treatment
results in greater damage.

Early surgical excision of wound is


controversial.
Delayed wide excision and skin grafting once the
eschar has formed is more conservative.

Dapsone treatment is promising.


Inhibits neutrophil function.

Treating with corticosteroids is controversial.

Caterpillarinduced Bleeding
Syndrome

Dermatosis

Myiasis

Allergy

Arthropods as Vectors

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