The big cities on an entire continent, invaded by Scorpions. The rate of sting has increased by 250% in nine years
Public health crisis because of the scorpions. Photo source: dreamstime.com
Rapid urbanization and climatic changes have led Scorpions to invade Brazilian cities, they warned researchers in a new study, according to The Guardian.
Over 1.1 million Scorpio stings were registered between 2014 and 2023 in Brazil, the rate of stings increasing during the period mentioned by 250%, according to a research published in the Diary in Public Health.
The increase in the number of cases was determined by the rapid and unplanned urbanization, among which the extension of the favors, ghettos in which the poor population lives, often coming from rural areas, and where access to utilities and hygiene are precarious.
“Urbanization in Brazil has deeply reshaped ecosystems,” said the main researcher, Manuela Berto Puca, assistant professor at the State University of São Paulo.
“The cities are unintentionally offering everything that scorpions need: abundant shelter (in walls, drainage channels, rubble and construction scraps), constant heat and a safe source of foods and other urban invertebrates,” added the teacher.
Some scorpion species can survive up to 400 days without food and are able to reproduce without mating, which makes them difficult to eradicate them.
The warmer summers and periods of intense rain and drought also help them to develop, because they are adapted to hot and humid environments.
The provisional data for 2024 suggest that Scorpions were responsible for almost 200,000 stings and 133 deaths in Brazil.
In total, the researchers estimated 2 million new cases between 2025 and 2033. “The real size of this problem is probably much larger than the registered statistics,” said those who conducted the study.
Public health crisis in Latin America
“Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Mexico, Guyana and Venezuela have undergone in recent decades the particularly alarming growths of the diseases resulting from a scorpion sting. This reality has evolved into a public health crisis,” scientists notes.
Dr. Manuela González-Suárez, an ecologist at Reading University, who was not involved in research, says that people should not be unjustified research.
“Many people who are stinged do not have severe or lethal reactions, and mortality rates are relatively low in comparison, for example, with those due to road accidents or violent offenses,” says the doctor.
Photo source: dreamstime.com
