Feás, X.; Vidal, C.; Remesar, S. What We Know about Sting-Related Deaths? Human Fatalities Caused by Hornet, Wasp and Bee Stings in Europe (1994–2016). Biology2022, 11, 282.
Feás, X.; Vidal, C.; Remesar, S. What We Know about Sting-Related Deaths? Human Fatalities Caused by Hornet, Wasp and Bee Stings in Europe (1994–2016). Biology 2022, 11, 282.
Feás, X.; Vidal, C.; Remesar, S. What We Know about Sting-Related Deaths? Human Fatalities Caused by Hornet, Wasp and Bee Stings in Europe (1994–2016). Biology2022, 11, 282.
Feás, X.; Vidal, C.; Remesar, S. What We Know about Sting-Related Deaths? Human Fatalities Caused by Hornet, Wasp and Bee Stings in Europe (1994–2016). Biology 2022, 11, 282.
Abstract
Epidemiology of Hymenopteran-related deaths in Europe due to bee, wasp and hornet stings (Cause Code of Death: X23) based on official registers from WHO Mortality Database is described. Over a 23-year period (1994-2016), a total of 1,691 fatalities were officially recorded, mostly occurring in Western (42.8%) and Eastern (31.9%) Europe. The victims tended to concentrate in: Germany (n=327; 1998-2015), France (n=211; 2000-2014) and Romania (n=149; 1999-2016). The majority of deaths occurred in males (78.1%), within the age group of 25-64 years (66.7%), and in an “unspecified place” (44.2%). The X23 gender ratio (X23GR) of mortality varied from a minimum of 1.4 for Norway to a maximum of 20 for Slovenia. The highest X23MR, expressed in terms of annual rates and per million inhabitants, were recorded in countries from Eastern Europe (0.35) followed by Western (0.28), Northern (0.23) and Southern Europe (0.2). The countries with the highest and lowest mean X23MR were Estonia (0.61), Austria (0.6) and Slovenia (0.55); and Ireland (0.05), United Kingdom (0.06) and the Netherlands (0.06), respectively. Country-by-country data show that the incidence of insect-sting mortality is statistically low, but not negligible.
Keywords
Hymenoptera; insect; bee; wasp; hornet; epidemiology; fatalities; venomous animals; public health
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Immunology and Allergy
Copyright:
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Commenter's Conflict of Interests:
I am co-author.
Comment:
Very happy to announce our paper entitled "What We Know About Sting-Related Deaths? Human Fatalities Caused by Hornet, Wasp and Bee Stings in Europe (1994-2016)" has been just accepted for publication in Biology. We thank the reviewers and editor for their valuable comments, which helped strengthen and improve our manuscript. It will be very soon freely available for reading. Congratulations to the author's team! Thank you for taking all the challenges and giving a good outcome of it! I appreciate your effort.
Commenter:
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: I am co-author.