Floods, 500 Egyptians Are Hospitalized Due To Deadly Scorpion Stings

Illustration of black fat tailed scorpion. (Wikimedia Commons/Guy Haimovitch)

JAKARTA - Floods in southern Egypt have forced scorpions out of their hiding places and into people's homes. As a result, hundreds of local residents suffered injuries.

503 people are known to have been hospitalized after being stung by the creature. Symptoms include severe pain, fever, sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle tremors, and head twitching.

Fortunately, all the patients were rescued with doses of antivenom and were discharged from the hospital, citing Euronews November 16.

The majority of the population who were stung were in Aswan Province where rain, hail and thunder caused the disaster. Local authorities have urged residents to avoid areas where there are a lot of trees or, better yet, stay at home.

Egypt is home to the fat tailed scorpion, one of the most dangerous species in the world. They are found throughout the semi-arid and arid regions of the Middle East and Africa.

Can grow to a size of 9 centimeters, the venom from the black fat tailed scorpion can kill a human in less than an hour.

Floods that hit the Aswan area in the Nile Delta are increasingly occurring due to climate change. The area was named one of the world's three extreme vulnerability hotspots in 2018 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

As a result of this flood, there were power outages throughout the province and flooded roads caused damage to houses, vehicles and farms. Three people have so far died from extreme weather due to climate change.

An Egyptian Ministry spokesman, Mohamed Ghanem, told one local outlet the torrential rain had turned into a "very destructive torrent," pouring from the mountain at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour.