Afraid of the violin spider? “Our spiders are not highly toxic. We have two or three that can cause harm in Italy, but they are not deadly or powerful spiders like American, Australian, African spiders.” The advice is therefore “not to be alarmed” by the violin spider because “it is not a medical emergency.” Can its bite be lethal? “We have not found, in medicine and scientific literature, nor in our case history, a single death from a violin spider bite. Among the requests for consultations received by our center, we have about a hundred per year that are for confirmed bites from this spider”. In rare cases, problems are found “and all of them recover”. This was explained to Adnkronos Salute by Carlo Locatelli, director of the Poison Control and Toxicology Center Maugeri (Pavia)a structure that operates at a rate of 105 thousand consultations per year, of which over 80% are for NHS hospitals.
The spotlight on the arachnid “normally present in Italy, even in our homes”, has been turned back on because it has been discussed in relation to the Death of a 52-year-old carabiniere in Palermo. And in the last two days, after the news hit the headlines, there was a boom in calls to the Center dictated by fears and worries for the violin spider, Locatelli reports. “We have had a notable increase in requests – says the expert – several scared people have called us. Those who were on call yesterday received about forty or fifty requests for advice of this type. Most frequently asked questions: if I had a bite from a violin spider, if I had a violin spider in my house, and so on. The answer is: we all have a violin spider in our house and it goes about its business. It does not attack humans and if it were to bite because it was involuntarily disturbed and nothing can be seen on the affected area, it will all pass in a few days”. If it were to evolve into a slightly more significant lesion “an antibiotic cream is applied” and a possible oral antibiotic therapy is evaluated, as reported in a fact sheet available on the portal of the Pavia poison control center. “If it becomes a necrotic lesion, you need to call back and you will be evaluated and treated as appropriate”, explains Locatelli.
When a person is bitten by a brown recluse spider, what should he do? “Don’t be alarmed – Locatelli repeats – If the violin spider has been seen and caught or photographed, we at the Poison Control Center send it to the arachnologist for identification. If there is only a small red mark, you put on a little cream, and you can stay home” and monitor yourself until it passes. “If a darker, reddish area emerges, which forms a crust, then we see it and intervene, but it happens in a minority of cases”, Locatelli assures. In the focus published online it is specified that the evolution from a simple bite to a necrotic lesion is very rare and only less than 1% of these cases evolve further, resulting in flu-like symptoms, low-grade fever, joint pain.
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