Clinical and epidemiological features of araneism in the city of Chapecó, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil

Abstract

This descriptive and exploratory study was carried out in order to verify the incidence of and characterize accidents with spiders, from 1995 to 2002, in the city of Chapecó, State of Santa Catarina. Notification records kept by the Center for Epidemiologic Surveillance of Chapecó concerning that period of time were analyzed, and the number of occurrences was calculated. In Chapecó, 131 accidents with spiders occurred during that period of time, and the incidence of araneism was of 0.8% in 1995; 0.0% in 1996; 2,2% in 1997; 8.66% in 1998; 11.9% in 1999; 18,4% in 2000; 17,5% in 2001 and 29,8% in 2002. Sixty-two point six per cent (62,6%) of these accidents were caused by spider of the genera Loxosceles. Most of them occurred with women and adults from 21 to 60 years old (54,9%). Approximately 80% of the accidents occurred in the urban area, since 80% of the victims lived in the city. The parts of the body that were most bitten by spiders were thigh/legs, foot/toes and hand/fingers. The main clinical alterations presented by the patients were pain, edema and erythema. The season when most accidents occurred was the Spring, and more than 40% of the victims were doing housework . Results from this study showed that the number of accidents has increased significantly in recent years, and that the implementation of public health policies in this area to prevent such accidents to happen is necessary.