Boy bitten by ants lands in ICU
BUTTERWORTH: A Remove Class student was admitted to the Seberang Jaya Hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) after being bitten by poisonous ants at his school compound in Jalan Raja Uda here.Loh Kean Beng, 13, from SMK Bagan Jaya, was rushed to the hospital after he started vomitting and his limbs began to swell.
Painful encounter: Kean Beng showing where the ants bit him to (from left) school PTA chairman Ang Joo Hong, Soon and Seberang Prai municipal councillor Ngu Lek Wah. He was discharged after about three hours when his condition stabilised upon being given three injections.
“I was taking shelter from the sweltering heat under two shady trees at about 5.30pm on Monday when I suddenly felt sharp stings on my hand and leg,” Kean Beng said when met at his house yesterday.
“The stung areas felt itchy and after about 30 minutes, I began to feel dizzy and feverish. One of the school staff members then called my father who immediately rushed me to the hospital,” he said.
“My father was then asked to bring specimens of the ant so that the proper antidote could be administered.”
Seberang Prai municipal councillor Soon Lip Chee said the ants, known locally as semut selangor (tetraponera rufonigra), could be found on dry tree trunks and branches in tropical countries, especially South-East Asia.
He said a few ant species were capable of painful stings but not all were known to pose a serious danger to human health.
What the ‘semut selangor’ looks like. Yesterday, he said, a special squad from the council used pesticides to destroy the ants on the trees in the school.
He added that he would write to the state Town and Country Planning Department to take precautionary measures by chopping down dry tree trunks and branches to prevent them from becoming breeding areas for the ants.
Soon said the public was advised to contact the squad (tel: 04-540-2550/51) if they had any problems with such ants.
