A 23-year-old man died from complications following a brown recluse spider bite on July 13 in Collepasso, in the Puglia region of southern Italy, Italian media reported on Saturday.
The victim, Giuseppe Russo, was clearing a field and at first thought it was an insect bite, but then the welt on his right leg grew larger and larger and the young man began to feel intense pain. Within a few days, an abscess formed on the leg, causing necrosis of the limb that continued to worsen, until he finally died in a hospital in Bari from septic shock and multiple organ failure.
A case that once again highlights the danger of the brown recluse spider, which is widespread in urban and agricultural areas throughout Italy and usually hides in the cracks of garages, houses and courtyards. The main component of the brown recluse spider’s venom is an enzyme, sphingomyelinase-D, which, when interacting with the victim’s cell membranes, triggers alterations that determine the activation of the immune system, causing tissue necrosis.
In most cases, doctors explain, the bite is asymptomatic, but in some cases tissue necrosis occurs which may require surgical intervention and only in a minority does it have lethal effects.
