By Rachael Marchese

‘I was attacked by a Blue Ringed Octopus’ AN 11-year-old girl was flown to hospital on Saturday after being stung by a blue-ringed octopus at Anglesea. Sergeant Brian McKiterick said the local girl had been playing in a rock pool when she was attacked about 3pm. "Suddenly her airways have contracted and she started having difficulty breathing," Sgt McKiterick said. "Her family have called the ambulance straight away," he said.

The blue-ringed octopus is 12 to 20 cm large, but its venom is powerful enough to kill humans. There is no blue-ringed octopus antivenom available. The octopus produces venom that contains tetrodotoxin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, hyaluronidase, tyramine, histamine, tryptamine, octopamine, taurine, acetylcholine, and dopamine.

The major neurotoxin component of blue-ringed octopus venom was originally known as maculotoxin but was later found to be identical to tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin which is also found in pufferfish that is 10,000 times more toxic than cyanide.

Tetrodotoxin blocks sodium channels, causing motor paralysis and respiratory arrest within minutes of exposure, leading to cardiac arrest due to a lack of oxygen. The toxin is produced by bacteria in the salivary glands of the octopus

As the bite may be painless, this octopus injects a paralyzing venom. The venom contain a poison more violent than any other venom found on land animals. The nerve conduction is blocked and neuromuscular paralysis is followed by death. The victim might be saved if artificial respiration starts before marked cyanosis and hypotension develops.

With a beak that can penetrate a wet-suit, they may seem like one little cute creature BUT something you wouldn’t dare touch. The blue-ringed octopus may be the size of a golf ball but its poison is powerful enough to kill an adult in just under minutes. There is no known antidote to save you, the only treatment is hours of heart massage and artificial respiration until the poison has worked its way out of your system.

SYMPTOMS -Onset of nausea. -Hazy Vision. (Within seconds you are blind.) -Loss of sense of touch, speech and the ability to swallow Within 3 minutes, paralysis sets in and your body goes into respiratory arrest.

Bibliography http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2010/01/18/138571_news.html http://robinabradyy.blogspot.com.au/