Box Jellyfish Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines & The Region

Good news all round. Scientists are getting closer to discovering an antidote to toxic box jellyfish venom and their hungry laboratory mice were given carte blanche to "chow" down "ad libitum".  According to a 2019 study published in nature.com  (Nature Communications), these very well-fed mice feasted then made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of a " molecular dissection of a jellyfish venom-induced cell death pathway by screening for host components required for venom exposure-induced cell death using genome-scale lenti-CRISPR mutagenesis". Yes. This was a serious scientific study  at a microscopic molecular level that makes for challenging reading if you prefer BuzzFeed to Biochemistry. Put simply, s cience is exploring the make-up of box jellyfish venom so it can isolate and manipulate its deadly components. The study, published as " Molecular dissection of box jellyfish venom cytotoxicity highlights an effective venom antidote",...

Fodor's Travel website published an article by Jacob Dean on 16 July, 2019 that brings the issue of box jellyfish in Thailand into the mainstream.  Social media posts, blogs such as this and local media reacting to sting events or official warnings have long been the major source of current and topical information on Thailand's box jellyfish problem. Fodor's is now front and centre. This news article is for the most part accurate, though there are several factual errors to note.  Firstly, this is not the 'Australian box jellyfish'. It is the Thai box jellyfish otherwise known as Chironex Indrasaksajae.  It's not an illegal alien from Oz, Thailand owns it! The 'general lack of eduction' and 'various conflicts of interests from stakeholders' the author references from 2016 has greatly improved, though is still far from perfect. A number of fatalities had occurred at this time and Thailand has officially upped the ante in the 3 years sin...