Investigators hypothesize poisoning with toxic substances through skin contact. Not to note the toxin that may have caused the child’s death
The medico-legal investigations on Andrea Manospertithe six-year-old boy from Palermo who died last July in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, they would hypothesize a contact poisoning with toxic substances. The hypothesis of advanced food poisoning would thus be set aside. The child’s father and mother (5 months pregnant at the time) also felt ill and the woman, with milder symptoms, called the emergency doctor on July 1st. The child died within 36 hours of the onset of symptoms, before arriving at the hospital, despite numerous resuscitation attempts. The father developed severe kidney problems and a urinary tract infection. All were affected by nausea and vomiting, but no dysentery.
But what is meant by contact poisoning with toxic substances?
We speak of contact poisoning when a chemical agent manages to pass through the skin into the body and reach vital internal organs such as the heart or brain, causing important dysfunctions, even fatal. Charles Locatelli, director of the Poison Control Center of the Maugeri Clinical Scientific Institute in Pavia The absorption of a toxic substance through the skin – he adds – is much slower than poisoning through the intestine or the respiratory system and it takes time before the situation you become critical. However, the Manosperti family fell ill on 1 July and immediately asked for help. The hypothesis that the illnesses had already occurred on June 28 was denied by the family.
At the moment it is not known what the accused toxic substance is. A 200-page technical report has arrived from Egypt which will have to be translated from Arabic and it will take months to get the documents. In the seas, usually in the Australian area, they also live poisonous jellyfishwith very long filaments. With climate change and changes in currents, jellyfish can move a lot. However these animals leave a mark on the skin and in any case all three family members should have had contact reflects Locatelli.
Another possibility that the child and family members may have absorbed through the skin the toxin of a plant poison or insecticide . There are organophosphorus insecticides which could cause lethal poisoning, but generally the diagnosis is simple, there are specific blood tests to be performed and antidotes to be taken. There are a few poisons that can be rapidly absorbed through the skin, among them pesticides, but in addition to having a nauseating smell, a poisoning of this kind is easily recognizable on a diagnostic level and, in any case, it is rare to arrive at such serious complications, unless there are important exposures. Only nerve agents can cause such rapid intoxication, not the pesticides used in agriculture concludes Locatelli.
January 12, 2023 (change January 12, 2023 | 7:36 pm)
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