Biology and ecology of Irukandji jellyfish (Cnidaria: Cubozoa).

Irukandji stings are a leading occupational health and safety issue for marine industries in tropical Australia and an emerging problem elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean. Their mild initial sting frequently results in debilitating illness, involving signs of sympathetic excess including excruciating pain, sweating, nausea and vomiting, hypertension and a feeling of impending doom; some cases also experience acute heart failure and pulmonary oedema. These jellyfish are typically small and nearly invisible, and their infestations are generally mysterious, making them scary to the general public, irresistible to the media, and disastrous for tourism.

Fatal and severe box jellyfish stings, including Irukandji stings, in Malaysia, 2000-2010.

Background: Jellyfish are a common cause of injury throughout the world, with fatalities and severe systemic events not uncommon after tropical stings. The internet is a recent innovation to gain information on real-time health issues of travel destinations, including Southeast Asia.

Methods: We applied the model of internet-based retrospective health data aggregation, through the Divers Alert Network Asia-Pacific (DAN AP), together with more conventional methods of literature and media searches, to document the health significance, and clinical spectrum, of box jellyfish stings in Malaysia for the period January 1, 2000 to July 30, 2010.

Severe Irukandji-like jellyfish stings in Thai waters.

Over recent years, there have been more widely-reported sightings of chirodropids and carybdeids in Thailand. There has also been an increased awareness and documentation of fatal and severe non-fatal jellyfish stings occurring in Thai waters. Although the victims are usually swimming or wading in shallow water, divers are also at risk.

Health advice obtained by tourists travelling to Magnetic Island: a risk area for 'Irukandji' jellyfish in North Queensland, Australia.

Background: Little is known about the travel health advice obtained by tourists travelling to Magnetic Island, which is a known risk area for the potentially fatal 'Irukandji' jellyfish on the Great Barrier Reef coast of north Queensland, Australia.

Methods: Structured interviews were conducted with 208 ferry passengers (93% response) travelling between Townsville (Latitude 19 degrees S) and Magnetic Island.

Results: Less than half of the international tourists (21, 46%) had obtained travel health advice before coming to north Queensland, although they were significantly more likely to have done so than domestic tourists (p<0.

Cardiovascular actions of the venom from the Irukandji (Carukia barnesi) jellyfish: effects in human, rat and guinea-pig tissues in vitro and in pigs in vitro.

1. We have investigated the cardiovascular pharmacology of the crude venom extract (CVE) from the potentially lethal, very small carybdeid jellyfish Carukia barnesi, in rat, guinea-pig and human isolated tissues and anaesthetized piglets. 2.

Phospholipase A2 in cnidaria.

Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is an enzyme present in snake and other venoms and body fluids. We measured PLA2 catalytic activity in tissue homogenates of 22 species representing the classes Anthozoa, Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa and Cubozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. High PLA2 levels were found in the hydrozoan fire coral Millepora sp.

Reported knowledge, perceptions, and behavior of tourists and North Queensland residents at risk of contact with jellyfish that cause the "Irukandji syndrome".

Objective: To determine the knowledge, beliefs, and behavior of local residents and visitors to North Queensland who may be at risk of contact with "Irukandji" jellyfish.

Methods: Structured interviews were conducted with 208 ferry passengers (92.9% response) traveling between Magnetic Island and Townsville (19 degrees S).

Fatal envenomation by jellyfish causing Irukandji syndrome.

We report the first of two recent deaths from Irukandji syndrome. A 58-year-old male tourist was stung on the face and chest by an unidentified jellyfish in shallow water off the Whitsunday Islands, Queensland. He developed muscle cramps, sweating, anxiety, nausea and hypertension, and died 30 hours later from intracerebral haemorrhage.