It’s the first recorded fatality from a box jellyfish sting in Australia in 15 years.
A 17-year-old boy has died after being stung by a box jellyfish while swimming at a beach in Queensland in Australia.
The Guardian reports that it is the first recorded fatality from a box jellyfish sting in Australia in 15 years.
The boy was stung on 22 February, before being rushed to hospital and placed in intensive care.
Police in Queensland confirmed the teenager died in hospital on Monday and that a report would be prepared by the coroner.
The box jellyfish has been called “the world’s most venomous creature”.
They possess millions of harpoon-like microscopic stinging cells on their tentacles that can lock peoples’ hearts into a contracted state.
The death is the 79th box jellyfish fatality since Australia began keeping records in the late 1800s.
The last recorded death was in 2006 and also occurred at Bamaga in north Queensland, near where the teenager was stung last month.
Jellyfish expert Dr Lisa-ann Gershwhin told the Guardian that the 17-year-old’s death was preventable with better resources and education for remote communities.
She called for education programmes, stinger nets and protective clothing to be implemented in those areas and said that Australia needed “to do better”.
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