The Danger of JellyFish to Humans

It’s summer time, I’m sure you are very eager to go to beach and use your cheap boracay package voucher  that you obtained from groupon sites. It’s really a good idea  to paddle, but you should also be careful because there are lots of danger that you may encounter at the beach, like jellyfish. Jellyfish stings are  very dangerous. It can paralyze a person and may lead to death if not taken quick medication. This is the case that recently happened to a Filipina artist named Anne Curtis, she was stung by a box jellyfish. Why you should be very cautious about jellyfish? According to the records, in Philippines alone, there’s an estimated of 20- 40 people dies annually because of the venom from jelly fish.

Treatment of Stings

First, the tentacles should be remove in the body of the victim, it should be taken off with the use of towel or hand gloves. Vinegar was once believed to be very effective in neutralizing the effect of sting, however, nowadays, there’s a sign that vinegar could amplify the effects of jellyfish sting to the human body.

In 2012,  Dr. Angel Yanagihara had a painful experience with the jellyfish that made her come up with the development of inhibitor that is very effective to the lethal venom of jellyfish. The inhibitor was called RMATRIX, the ‘R’ is for the National Institutes of Health’s Research Centers in Minority Institutions, which JABSOM belongs to. MATRIX is short for “multidisciplinary and translational research infrastructure expansion.”

The inhibitor has zinc gluconate which is different from the zinc oxide, which is present in cream and used by the beach visitors.

Dr. Yanagihara’s was also developed the inhibitor to remove the pain and control the swelling. As of today, they are doing clinical research and distribution of product in the market.

Dr. Yanagihara’s research on box jellyfish could lead to other life-saving breakthroughs on things like cell regeneration and treating septic shock.

Prevention

First and foremost, jellyfish is common in the seashore at summer time, this is because this is their mating time. If you can’t resist the summer heat, just be cautious and carefully pick the place where you’ll swim. Pick a resort where a net fence is present.

We should not hate and hunt those jellyfish, after all they are part of the marine ecosystem. Extinction of any species under the system will make the ecosystem unbalanced thus causing much trouble in the future.