Tourist stung by peanut-sized jellyfish in Australia dies
An American tourist has become the second visitor to Australia to die after being stung by a tiny, translucent jellyfish for whose poison there is no known antidote.
Robert King, 44, from Ohio, died on Friday in Townsville hospital in north Queensland.
He was stung by the peanut-sized jellyfish while he was diving on the Great Barrier Reef, off Port Douglas, late last month.
Richard Jordan, 58, a tourist from Yorkshire, became the first recorded fatality from an irukandji sting on January 31. He was attacked while swimming off Hamilton Island in northern Australia.
The American died from a cerebral haemorrhage caused by a rapid rise in his heart rate and blood pressure.
The venom causes a condition called irukandji syndrome, where the victim feels a prickly sensation followed by severe cramps, stomach and back pains, and nausea.
Some victims also experience cardiac and pulmonary complications depending on the severity of the sting.
Irukandji - which have four 50cm tentacles and are found off Australia's north coast, throughout the Pacific and in Florida - are a small relative of the box jellyfish, which have killed about 65 people in Australia over the past 50 years.
About 30 people are normally treated in hospital in Australia between November and May each year after being stung by irukandji.
But an unusually high number of the creatures have been washed up on northern beaches in recent months.
Zoologists have blamed prevailing winds for their arrival.
A total of 79 people were treated for stings at one northern hospital alone in December and January.
Robert King, 44, from Ohio, died on Friday in Townsville hospital in north Queensland.
He was stung by the peanut-sized jellyfish while he was diving on the Great Barrier Reef, off Port Douglas, late last month.
Richard Jordan, 58, a tourist from Yorkshire, became the first recorded fatality from an irukandji sting on January 31. He was attacked while swimming off Hamilton Island in northern Australia.
The American died from a cerebral haemorrhage caused by a rapid rise in his heart rate and blood pressure.
The venom causes a condition called irukandji syndrome, where the victim feels a prickly sensation followed by severe cramps, stomach and back pains, and nausea.
Some victims also experience cardiac and pulmonary complications depending on the severity of the sting.
Irukandji - which have four 50cm tentacles and are found off Australia's north coast, throughout the Pacific and in Florida - are a small relative of the box jellyfish, which have killed about 65 people in Australia over the past 50 years.
About 30 people are normally treated in hospital in Australia between November and May each year after being stung by irukandji.
But an unusually high number of the creatures have been washed up on northern beaches in recent months.
Zoologists have blamed prevailing winds for their arrival.
A total of 79 people were treated for stings at one northern hospital alone in December and January.
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