Indian woman dies in Saudi Arabia after being bitten by venomous ant

In a rare incident, an Indian woman has died in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, after being reportedly bitten by a venomous ant. Reports suggest that the woman died, April 3, at the hospital, where she was undergoing treatment.

Susy Jeffy, 36, who was a native of Karuvatta near Adoor in the Indian southern state of Kerala, was reportedly bitten by the poisonous ant, March 19, according to Manorama news. Subsequently, she was rushed to Obeid Hospital in Riyadh for the treatment. Jeffy had gone into an anaphylactic shock that reportedly caused by the ant bite.

According to The News Minute (TNM), Susy had started to swell up after she complained to her husband Jeffy Mathew about something that had bitten her. Soon after that, she started having breathing difficulties.

Obeid hospital officials told TNM that Susy's blood pressure level and pulse were extremely low when she was brought into the hospital.

"Her family said that she was bitten by some kind of an ant, the husband said he had seen the ant himself. But we cannot verify this since no tests could be done to verify if there was poison in her body. There was no visible bite mark," a hospital official told TNM. "She had a history of asthma. We gave her medical help to improve her BP, she was on ventilator support."

While the cause of her death still could not be verified, the hospital official further claimed that this kind of case had recently happened as another person was brought into the hospital a few weeks ago almost in the similar state.

"Another person who had gone into anaphylactic shock was admitted to the hospital a few weeks ago. In that case, too the relatives had said that it was an ant bite that caused the shock. That patient too died," the official added.

Poisonous ant bite can lead to death as a few ant species could be fatal for some full-grown adults.

Can venomous ant bite lead to death?

Yes, ant bite could be deadly if any person is allergic to insect stings. Also, there are several poisonous ants around the world such as bullet ant, bulldog ant, fire ant, Florida Havester Ant etc.

According to American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, at least 90- 100 people die every year suffering from life-threatening allergic reactions or insect sting anaphylaxis.

In 2013, a 12-year-old Texas boy died after being bitten by fire ants several times during a football game.

Later the similar incident occurred in 2017 to a Bolivian woman, who had died after poisonous fire ants bite. The 52-year-old had been bound to a tree infested with fire ants by angry mob after being wrongly accused of stealing a car.