Black Widows bite 13 workers
2004-08-25 21:37
Kiev - Thirteen Ukrainians were bitten by poisonous Black Widow spiders, the newspaper Segodnya reported on Wednesday.
The incidents last week took place in the southern Odessa region. All the victims were farm workers bitten while digging up onions.
One of the workers was admitted to hospital in a severe, but stable, condition. The others were treated and later discharged.
Black Widow bites are a regular occurrence in Ukraine, where a large portion of the population works in low-technology agriculture.
The bite rate in onion fields in the Odessa region almost doubled the number of Black Widow bites on all Ukrainians for all of 2003, the report said.
Large numbers of insects this season, combined with worker carelessness, are the probable causes of the increased rate this year, the report said.
Black Widow bites are rarely fatal, but often serious, as the poison used by the spider is chemically similar to venom from a cobra. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA