Re: [OT]In Defence of the Australian Tourist Industry

Firstly, many thanks for all the e-mails on and off
the list wishing my sister good health and a full recovery.

She's actually back at work now after taking 5 weeks off.
After the X-ray showed the reason for her continued shoulder
pain was a broken collarbone, and that getting fixed up, she's
basically back to near-normal health.

FWIW she's 8 years older than I am, and 5ft 1/2" in her
stockings. She insists on the 1/2".

Secondly, there's been a lot of posts about the danger us
Aussies are subject to from Drop Bears ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
spider bites, etc. Much from the US. Canada. Europe.

Honesty compells me to state that most (over 90%) of the
literature on necrotising spider bites is based on the
US Brown Recluse spider. The US Hobo spider is also implicated,
as are other US Recluse spiders.
See http://www.srv.net/~dkv/hobospider/necromap.jpg
for a map which shows which danger zone(s) you may live in.

Note that a large part of Canada is included.

"The hobo spider may now be expected to occur in central Alberta,
Canada, south and northwestern British Columbia, and coastal regions
of extreme southern Alaska."

Before Europeans start celebrating their safety,

"The hobo spider, Tegenaria agrestis, is a moderately large spider
of the family Agelenidae which is indigenous to western Europe
that was introduced into the northwestern United States (Port of
Seattle) sometime before the 1930's."
(quotes from http://hobospider.org/story.html ).

The hobo spider is also known as the "Aggressive House Spider."

Finally, my sister is one of about 20 people who had spiderbite
necrosis in Australia in the last 10 years, and the first reported
case of it affecting bone tissue.

Compared with these words from the US Centre for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00042059.htm

" In 1994, poison-control center log reports compiled by the American
Association of Poison Control Centers listed 9418 spider bites .....
...A specific kind of spider was noted for 246 of these bites, including
66
(27%) that were classified as brown recluse bites (there is no coding
category for hobo spiders). Adapted from: CD Summary 1995;14(no. 22),
Center
for Disease Prevention and Epidemiology, Oregon Health Div, Oregon Dept
of
Human Resources."

"Case 3. In late January 1988, a 56-year-old resident of Spokane,
Washington, was bitten by a "bug" on her right thigh. Within 24 hours,
she
developed a severe headache, nausea, and altered mentation. Although
symptoms persisted, she did not seek medical attention until February
16,
1988, when she began to bleed from her ears and other orifices. She was
admitted to a hospital with a diagnosis of aplastic anemia,
pancytopenia,
and thrombocytopenia. An eschar on her leg was consistent with necrosis
from
a spider bite. Despite transfusion therapy, the patient developed severe
internal hemorrhage and died in early March 1988. T. agrestis spiders
were
abundant along railroad tracks adjacent to the patient's home during an
inspection of the patient's neighborhood of residence."

So come to Australia, you'll be safe. Our wussy spiders haven't killed
anyone for ages.