Scary Australia

[Sakai]

Jack jumper ant and it can kill you.

 

[Torneyboy]

Vaccine underway in Tas for 'Jack jumper' ant bite

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The World Today - Thursday, 17 February , 2005 12:46:00

Reporter: Annie Guest

ELEANOR HALL: To Tasmania now, where a one centimetre long insect has been forcing locals to flee their state.

 

The "jack jumper" ant kills at a rate of one person every four years and causes severe illness in hundreds of others.

 

But researchers in Hobart say now they're a step closer to developing a vaccine, as Annie Guest reports.

 

ANNIE GUEST: Fifty thousand Australians are allergic to jack jumpers, some so badly one bite would kill them.

 

Jack jumpers are found in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT and South Australia, but most are concentrated in the island state.

 

Doctor Konrad Blackman, an emergency physician at the Royal Hobart Hospital says it's an amazingly powerful creature.

 

KONRAD BLACKMAN: Jack jumper is one of the bull ant species, Myrmecia pilosula, it's about 1.2 centimetres long, a black body with quite prominent yellow nippers and occasionally yellow legs.

 

ANNIE GUEST: Do they actually jump?

 

KONRAD BLACKMAN: The jack jumper is well named, we observe them jumping, usually only five or six centimetres but they're quite happy to jump off a bush or jump considerably larger distances up to 15 or 20 centimetres if necessary.

 

ANNIE GUEST: Doctor Blackman says the jumping jack has driven some Tasmanians to northern states.

 

KONRAD BLACKMAN: Allergic reactions to jack jumper stings can range from anything from a very painful but only irritating bite to death and anything in between.

 

People who have severe allergic reactions can, in their employment such as forestry workers or at the beach, can be many hours away from medical attention and some people have elected to leave the state and reduce the risk of being stung by an ant like this rather than stay.

 

ANNIE GUEST: What treatment is currently available for people stung by jack jumpers?

 

KONRAD BLACKMAN: Currently there are two methods of treating jack jumper allergy. First there is the first aid, an adrenalin pen that the patient can carry with them at all times to start the treatment, and we usually carry this on in hospital with other medications. The second phase of treatment is what we're working on at the moment, which is desensitising or switching off that allergic reaction that causes those catastrophic responses.

 

(sound of dustbuster)

 

ANNIE GUEST: Professor Simon Brown, what are you doing with a dustbuster on the mountains behind Hobart?

 

SIMON BROWN: (laughs) Collecting ant venom. We collect the ants in the dustbuster. We then clean the ants and we put them into a special box that pass an electric current along the base and they smear venom across the glass slide, and we're aiming to collect a couple of hundred milligrams of that venom this week.

 

ANNIE GUEST: Simon Brown is an Associate Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Western Australia.

 

He's part of the team trying to develop a commonly available vaccine against the jack jumper.

 

Professor Brown says preliminary trials have been successful, and researchers will now proceed to the next stage of scientific study.

 

SIMON BROWN: We've shown that the treatment works in Tasmania, now we have to work out a way, or we have to show that the venom is stable, have an appropriate formulation which we can then distribute around the country.

 

ELEANOR HALL: Associate Professor Simon Brown from the University of Western Australia ending that report from Annie Guest in Hobart.

 

Nasty critter...