One hundred and five high school students suffered rashes and
water blisters after being stung by red fire ants in east China's
Anhui Province, local authorities said
Friday.
The patients, from the Yongning High School in Dingyuan County,
were hospitalized last Sunday after being encountered with the tiny
beasts, a spokesman with the county government said.
Initial investigation shows that the students were stung by red
fire ant, or solenopsis invicta, which originated in South America,
entered North America in the 1930s and proceeded to Australia, New
Zealand and China's Taiwan?in early 21st century.
The pest devour vegetation and seriously injure people and
animals that disturb them. Repeated stings from a swarm could lead
to chest pains, nausea, shock or in extremely rare cases, coma and
death.
The local government and the school had sprayed pesticides to
kill the harmful ants and no new cases have been reported since
Wednesday, the government spokesman said.
One of the patients has recovered and gone back to class while
the others are still being treated, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2006)