According to the Bangkok Post, a nine-year-old Israeli boy was killed by a box jellyfish on the Thai island of Koh Phangan last weekend.
The boy was on the island’s Hat Rin beach with his family, and was stung by the jellyfish as he played in the water.
It seems as though the boy may have ignored the signs, or did not realize where the netted off areas where, as it appears he was in the water outside them.
The child was stung around 5:30 pm and, although his father poured vinegar on the stings and then took the boy to Koh Phangan International Hospital, he died en route to the hospital.
Koh Phangan district chief Poonsak Soponpathumrak said there were signs in three languages on Hat Rin beach warning people to only go into the water in areas that are surrounded by nets.
The beach also has bottles of vinegar placed in various spots, as vinegar is known to inhibit the stinging cell spread.
As a reader on the Bangkok Post article commented, there are also signs in various languages and bottles of vinegar on other beaches in Thailand. In particular, he mentioned seeing them on Lamai Beach on Koh Samui recently.
Jellyfish are known to be a problem in certain parts of Koh Phagnan and other areas of Thailand, with several people being stung by them every year.
Two women and a chld have also died in recent years as a result of box jellyfish stings in Thailand.
The death of the first woman occurred in July, 2015 just off Koh Phagnan, while a second women died three months later on Koh Samui’s Lamai Beach.
A five-year-old French boy was stung by a box jellyfish in Thailand the previous year, and also died.
Most box jellyfish stings, while painful, are not generally a cause of death, however, with only a few hundred deaths reported worldwide in almost a century.
Children tend to be more at-risk of serious injury or death due to their small body size.
