For the first time in medical history, a female patient died after she underwent acupuncture with a live bee. BuzzFeed News reported that the 55-year-old woman in Madrid, Spain, had been going through acupuncture sessions using bees once a month for the past two years without any problems.

The bees are applied to the skin and permitted to sting patients to treat health problems such as stress and muscle contractions. During the previous sessions, the woman was in good health and did not have any problems during the previous sessions

Just one sting

However, all it took was one sting for the woman to start wheezing and having trouble breathing. She eventually lost consciousness which led the clinic to call an ambulance that took 30 minutes to arrive. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, the clinic treated her with a corticosteroid. However, the clinic did not have any epinephrine on hand which is often used to stop life-threatening allergic reactions.

In the case of the 55-year-old-patient, she had anaphylaxis or severe allergic reactions which involved a massive immune response to an allergen which caused her blood pressure to drop. By the time the ambulance arrived, she had very low blood pressure and was in a coma. She was still given treatment, but she died a few weeks later after a massive stroke and multi-organ failure.

Her case was published in the recent issue of the Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology. She actually died three years ago, Dr. Ricardo Madrigal-Burgaleta of Homerton University Hospital London, clarified.

What she underwent was apitherapy which is any treatment that uses a bee product such as pollen or venom to treat health problems. Medical experts noted that there is not a lot of ironclad scientific evidence that the bee venom therapy works, although it has been studied for years as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, gout, lupus, osteoarthritis, and autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis. Bee venom is believed to have anti-inflammatory and healing properties.

Although there is lack of proof that it works, celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow have used it. The venom is sometimes promoted as a beauty Botox alternative that costs between $150 and $350.

A fairly extreme version of apitherapy

Dr. Joshua Davidson, an allergy and immunology physician at Healthcare Partners in Redondo Beach, California, said that live bee acupuncture treatment represents a fairly extreme version of apitherapy versus more mainstream options such as royal jelly or bee pollen over-the-counter products. He said that any form of apitherapy should be evaluated in advance of use, specifically for patients with a known Hymenoptera sensitivity, whether it is from the stings of a wasp, hornet, bumblebee, or honeybee.

The sting-related anaphylaxis and death, most of the time, happen after someone is accidentally stung. Each year, about 90 to 100 people in the US die from insect stings, including bees. However, the case of the female patient from Madrid seems to be the first reported case after bee sting acupuncture. Had she been provided rapid treatment with epinephrine, it could have stopped the dangerous reaction before it became life-threatening.

Madrigal-Burgaleta said that death is not a common outcome of a bee sting, but bee sting practices are becoming more common. He said that if enough chances have been taken without the adequate resources and installation, a tragedy will eventually happen.

He said that people can become sensitized to an allergen at any time. It means that the body starts to treat a normally harmless protein as a dangerous invader. Repeated exposure can boost the risk of sensitization. It means that even if a person never had a reaction in the past, the person can still have one in the future.

Symptoms of anaphylaxis

The symptoms of anaphylaxis can include eye, face, and throat swelling, as well as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, itchy and reddened skin, confusion, and slurred speech, difficulty breathing and swallowing, abdominal pain, and unconsciousness.

Dr. Dean Mitchell, a clinical assistant professor at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York, said that the fear with giving bee venom sting is that a patient can become sensitized from the stings and then after repeated treatments get a severe anaphylactic reaction.

A report from the National Center for Biotechnology Information said that bee venom treatments were used in ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Asia, Bustle reported. The practitioners used bee venom and other bee substances such as honey, pollen, beeswax, and royal jelly to treat several conditions such as arthritis and chronic pain conditions.

Apitherapy proponents prescribe live bee acupuncture. Here, the practitioner pinches the head of the insect until the sting emerges, resulting in the transfer of the venom and the death of the bee. In some cases, the venom is delivered through injection with needles.

The American Apitherapy Society does not claim to cure any specific conditions, but it recommends apitherapy for a number of ailments such as multiple sclerosis, shingles, gout, and the treatment of tumors.

[메디컬리포트=Vittorio Hernandez 기자]

저작권자 © 메디컬리포트뉴스 무단전재 및 재배포 금지