LISTEN: Specialist says Chinese centipede ‘unlikely’ to have bitten KZN man
A snake bite expert says it’s
highly unlikely that a Chinese centipede could make its way to South Africa.
This follows reports that a 36-year-old Mhlasini man was taken to Osindisweni Hospital, north of Durban, after being bitten by what paramedics from Reaction Unit South Africa believe was a venomous centipede early Friday morning.
The officers said the arthropod was a Chinese Red-Headed Centipede.
“Our habitat is quite different from other countries, so the chances of exotic centipedes from China ending up in South Africa and establishing in the wild are extremely rare, close to zero. And we monitor that; we get very good information about that. The problem is that people see a centipede or see a snake, and then they Google,” said the CEO of the African Snake Bite Institute, Johan Marais.
He said there are many varieties of centipedes in South Africa and their bites can be very painful.
“It is like a very bad wasp sting, but it is no worse than that. I havve never known of cases where it was necessary to hospitalize a patient, but it can be extremely painful. It's just pain management. Of course, in other countries, in places like South America they get much larger.
“And there the bites can be far more serious. But in South Africa, we don't regard it as a medical emergency.”
RUSA said the man suffered from an allergic reaction, leaving him with numbness across his face and body.
Marais said it could be caused by several factors and is not necessarily linked to the centipede.
“The numbness could be caused by a centipede, it's a short-term problem, but the same sort of numbness could be caused by a variety of invertebrates, insect bites, but even toxic plants and other forms of poisonings.”
Marais also dispelled a popular myth about the creatures.
“In Afrikaans we call them oorskruipers, which means that it is something that crawls into your ear, and that is a popular myth. It is not true; they don't crawl into your ear. It's just a story that people tell.”
