Off The Scale Box Jellyfish Sting Pain

Most have at some stage or another had to try through gritted teeth answering the one question we do not want to or cannot: how bad is the pain?

From a stubbed toe to a migraine, the intensity impacted by the patient's pain threshold obviously varies. Many know that jellyfish stings are usually bad but box jellyfish stings, no matter who you are, are so bad they almost defy description.

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is mild and 10 is unimaginable and unspeakable, box jellyfish stings as so eloquently put by lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel when explaining his amp in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, "... go to eleven."

American professor Brian Fry from the University of Queensland, Australia is a venom expert and when rating that country's Top 10 most painful stings he placed two cubozoa or box jellyfish species at the top. 

Coming in second was the Chironex and at number one was the Irukandji. Chironex is a Chirodropida or multi-tentacle box jellyfish and Irukandji is a Carybdeida or single-tentacle box jellyfish.

Professor Fry discussed the subject with the ABC and while referring to animals in Australia, it's important to note that related species live in the waters of Thailand, Malaysia and the Phillipines. 

Chironex indrasaksajiae and yamaguchii - closely related to Australia's fleckeri - not only inflict immeasurable pain, they are well know to cause serious injury and death, very very quickly.

There are many species of Irukandji found in the western Indo-Pacific with probably the most infamous being Malo filipina and Morbakka and, as ranked by Professor Fry, top the list of painful stings.

He describes a Chironex sting as: 

"... taking an iron poker, heating it up to molten levels, dipping it in acid and then whipping it as hard as you can across the person. They get dermonecrotic burns, which are exactly as much fun as they sound.”

And Irukandji? (look away if you're squeamish):

"The pain goes on for two weeks or more, successively getting worse as time goes on … it is a brutality, a physical torture. I’ve heard it from [multiple people] who’ve been stung, almost the exact same words, where they describe an impending feeling of doom."

Further adding, "There’s this psychological effect that is as traumatising to these people as the physical impact of the pain. There’s no antivenom. We have no way of neutralising it at this point, all we can do is treat the symptoms. Morphine has no effect on these people. Zero."

It's not ten. These go to eleven!

Double ouch!!

Further Reading:

• ABC News Article With Brian Fry
• Sting Pain DIY
  
• Irukandji In South-East Asia
  
• Steps To Life-Saving