Rheumatoid Arthritis Support

It is estimated that 80% of reported brown recluse bites may be misdiagnosed. The misdiagnosis of a wound as a brown recluse bite could delay proper treatment of serious diseases. There is now an ELISA-based test for brown recluse venom that can determine if a wound is a brown recluse bite, although it is not commercially available and not in routine use.

There are numerous documented infectious and noninfectious conditions (including pyoderma gangrenosum, bacterial infections by ''Staphylococcus'' and ''Streptococcus'', herpes, diabetic ulcer, fungal infections, chemical burns, toxicodendron dermatitis, squamous cell carcinoma, localized vasculitis, syphilis, toxic epidermal necrolysis, sporotrichosis, and Lyme disease) that produce wounds that have been initially misdiagnosed as recluse bites by medical professionals; many of these conditions are far more common and more likely to be the source of mysterious necrotic wounds, even in areas where recluses actually occur.

Reported cases of bites occur primarily in Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma. There have been many reports of brown recluse bites in California (and elsewhere outside the range of the brown recluse. (though a few related species may be found there, none of which has been shown to bite humans). To date, the reports of bites from areas outside of the spider's native range have been either unverified, or—if verified—specimens moved by travelers or commerce. Gertsch and Ennik (1983) report that occasional spiders have been intercepted in various locations where they have no known established populations; Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Wyoming and Tamaulipas (Mexico), which indicates that these spiders may indeed be transported fairly easily, though the lack of established populations well outside the natural range also indicates that such movement does not lead to colonization of new areas. Many arachnologists believe that many bites attributed to the brown recluse in the West Coast are not spider bites at all, or possibly instead the bites of other spider species; for example, the bite of the hobo spider has been reported to produce similar symptoms, and is found in the northwestern United States and southern British Columbia. However, the toxicity of the hobo spider has been called into question as bites have not been proven to cause necrosis, and the spider is not considered a problem in Europe. In addition, published work has shown that tick-induced Lyme disease rashes are often misidentified as brown recluse spider bites.


Adapted from the Wikipedia article Brown recluse spider, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki