Hot Water Best For Jellyfish Sting

[mrmoshe]

Hot water best for jellyfish sting

HOT water is the most effective way to relieve the pain of a jellyfish sting, a study has found.

Doctors and medical students at Busselton Hospital in Western Australia purposefully stung themselves with jellyfish to compare four popular treatments – ice, vinegar, aluminium sulfate and hot water.

“Hot water was the only successful treatment, relieving 88 per cent of the pain,” the team wrote in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.

“Other treatments were incomplete and temporary.”

They said that sting patients treated with hot water at about 45C got “significant” pain relief in 4-10 minutes, and the heat also appeared to stop inflammation.

“There is an urgent need for knowledge of this simple remedy to be spread,” said study author, Dr John Taylor.

“And there is the potential that it could even be lifesaving when used with more serious jellyfish stings in the north of Australia.”