Box jellyfish sting kills woman in Koh Pha-ngan

[limbos]

What beach the woman was swimming in phangan?

There are diffrent type of vinegar for cooking and medical vinegar what is the diffrence? The result is better when you mix it with backing powder!

Haad Rin beach, where the FMP is held.

Any straight. off the shell white vinegar will do just fine.

Baking powder is not advised for box jelly fish stings but may be useful when sting by Portuguese man'o'war

[limbos]

There are a few signs on Samui, I've not been to KP for a while.... but perhaps there are some now? but they are not going to post every 50 metres....

It would be best to carry one's own vinegar, 5% white vinegar is about 60 baht for 3 litres at all the large stores... bottle it down for beach use (just in case) or just purchase a small bottle of white vinegar!

Beach morning glory is supposed to help too...

Condolences to family and friends for the death of the victim....

There were signs on pretty much all beaches before the Thai lady was stung, but not on Haad Rin, they did not follow the lead of all other beach areas after a French 5 year old boy died last year at Haat Kuad or bottle beach.

Beach morning glory should only be used AFTER treatment with vinegar, not before, that can worsen the situation. Beach morning glory may ease the pain a little bit but only morphine will do a proper job in case of box jelly fish stings.

[limbos]

Sting No More.

Introduced about a month ago, in Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiiweblog.com/2015/06/17/jellyfish-sting-cream

There's no scientific back up to proof that this will help.

[Basil B]

Sting No More.

Introduced about a month ago, in Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiiweblog.com/2015/06/17/jellyfish-sting-cream

There's no scientific back up to proof that this will help.

But then she has probably the best protection against Jellyfish stings...

[IslandLover]

An interesting blog site on the problem of box jellyfish in S.E. Asia can be found here:

http://thaiboxjellyfish.blogspot.nl/

Note what they say about the latest incident in Koh Phangan:

Thai authorities managing the box jellyfish situation in Thailand have urged Koh Phangan locals to act though they have continually resisted any prevention activities made available to them.

[jtTamad]

Sting No More.

Introduced about a month ago, in Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiiweblog.com/2015/06/17/jellyfish-sting-cream

I know it's common practice these days but before you recommend something like this it's a good idea to give it a careful look first. Nowhere does the website give any details about the cream, the "product detail" page only lists tube sizes/volumes, nothing about the cream except it's "mil-spec" and is a "proprietary, patent-pending product" for "relief from box jellyfish and fire-ant bites." Relief is very general, at best would mean reducing the amount of venom/toxins entering the body, as that's the best response, but could also mean only reducing symptoms or pain. Relating it to fire ants suggests the latter, since the latter is just formic acid which is far from the closest toxin to those in box jellyfish stings, but both are very painful and would be "relieved" by a vinegar-like (i.e. high pH) liquid or cream.

Otherwise there's nothing about it which suggests it's better than vinegar and carefully removing the nematocysts before they fire. Once the venom's in the body no cream, mil-spec or not, is going to help.

You are exactly right. I should have taken the time to make a fuller statement, thanks.

You raise some good points, which make sense. A news article about the product says it was mentioned in a PBS documentary, see wikipedia here: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Box_jellyfish#/Treatment_of_stings

It would be nice that it includes more detail about the product, which should be added to wikipedia (which i will do). I plan to look for more info. If you or anyone, discovers anything more about this stuff, please let me know.

[cumgranosalum]

Stingose - works like magic on jellyfish (and mosquitoes) stings.

Tripe! - This is box-jellyfish being discussed here.....not general stings.

[cumgranosalum]

Stingose - works like magic on jellyfish (and mosquitoes) stings.

Tripe! - This is box-jellyfish being discussed here.....not general stings.

[cumgranosalum]

Thaiwife claim that morning Thai News say that NO warning signs about box jellyfish was up until the poor woman got stung ... then signs came up ... TiT I guess, life has no value here awful way to go for her

RIP

Box jellyfish is a new phenomenon in Thailand. They were first observed a few years ago. There is just not enough local knowledge about these creatures yet.

Not true - they have always lived in this region....why not read up a bit before posting such nonsense?