海岸岩場地帯の海水浴・潜水者にみられる水中刺咬症

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Injuries by stings of unknown agents have been reported to occur among the swimmers in the rocky seaweed-growing seashore areas of Niigata Prefecture. The stings were seen among the bathers and the seaweed-collecting divers in summer season and caused the local initial skin lesions in most cases. Usually a variety of general symptoms followed. In order to investigate the causative agent of this sting, the clinical, epidemiological studies and the toxicological experiments have been carried out since July, 1970. The results obtained so far are as follows : 1) The stings took place during the period from the middle of June to the end of August with the greatest number of cases occurring in the second and last decades of July. Most victims were under twenty years of age but the cases of the woman seaweed collectors were older. The severe cases were observed especially in these woman divers. 2) The stings occurred mainly on the skin of the trunk covered by the swimming suit. At the site of sting, usually the initial pain was present and the localized erythematous patch up to several cm in diameter followed. 3) The general symptoms consisted of severe pains in the various groups of muscles, oppression of chest, coughing, lacrimation, serous rhinorrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever etc., and in general the recovery occurred in 1 or 2 days. In severe cases the victims were sent to hospital because of severe pains and dysbasia, and had to receive approximately one week's medical attention. The same symptoms were occasionally seen by eating a kind of seaweed Nemacystus decipiens (Suringar) in raw condition. 4) The etiological investigations have been made to find out a small poisonous jellyfish in the rocky seaweed-growing locality where the victims were stung, since such clinical and epidemiological aspects seemed to refer to the sting by it. Consequently, a small jellyfish measuring 5∿15mm in diameter Gonionemus oshoro Uchida has been discovered in accordance with the seasonal occurrence of victims. 5) Some victims have told us to see a small jellyfish-like agent at the sting site under the swimming suit. It is also possible that such a jellyfish got between the swimming suit and the skin of trunk may result in simultaneously discharging the venom of numerous nematocysts into the skin of victims. 6) The assaying of the venom of nematocyst extracted from G. oshoro showed that some signs similar to human cases were produced when the extract was intraperitoneally inoculated into mice and guinea pigs. 7) Two Japanese monkeys showed some symptoms similar to human cases when three G. oshoro were applied to the skin of both superior palpebral regions and one side of buccal region, respectively. 8) Finally a G. oshoro was applied to the skin of the anterior cubital or medial brachial region of five volunteers, respectively, and three persons exposed produced the local and general symptoms corresponding to those mentioned above, while two remaining persons showed only a slight local symptom. 9) Other epidemiological date also have suggested that G. oshoro must be responsible for this injurious effect. The severity of the victims may be modified by sensitivity of the individual to venom, and a hypersensitivity phenomenon encountered occasionally in the woman divers could be an anaphylactic reaction produced by the recurrent stings. On the other hand, the similar symptoms observed in people who ate N. decipiens in raw condition are probably due to swallowing of G. oshoro with such a seaweed. 10) G. oshoro appears to harbor mainly in a seaweed Sargassum confusum Agardh, and it is indicated that these stings may occur widely along the rocky seaweed-growing seashore areas in northern Japan.
日本衛生動物学会の論文
1974-02-15

海岸岩場地帯の海水浴・潜水者にみられる水中刺咬症

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