A tourist from São Paulo died after being bitten by a brown spider in Morro de São Paulo, in the Bahian city of Cairu, on Tuesday night (9). The victim died in the early hours of Sunday (14). A friend who accompanied the traveler blames the restaurant where the bite occurred for the death.
According to BNews, the tourist was accompanied by six other people at the site. The group even rented a speedboat for a sea tour. After a few hours at sea, they decided to have dinner at a nearby restaurant, Sambass Café, located on the Second Beach.
The next day, the tourist began to complain of malaise. His friends soon took him to a local health facility. He had to be transferred to two hospitals, first to one in Valença and then to Santo Antônio. It was there that they discovered that he had been bitten by a brown spider.
The victim was bitten in the calf and had very dark skin in the affected area. The man had to be intubated, but died. The body remains in the city awaiting transfer to São Paulo.
A friend of the tourist told BNews that the fatality is the fault of the Sambass Café restaurant. He claims that the establishment has sofas made of wicker that house this type of spider.
“It was on this little wicker sofa, man. I’ve even told the guy to take it off. That’s their cocoon [spiders]. He sat on the couch and I sat in a chair apart,” said the friend.
The restaurant counters and says that a fumigation is carried out on the site once a month.
“It has never happened in 20 years, we have had no news of this, no customer has come to us, no one has come to us, no one has asked for help,” the restaurant told BNews, adding that it will check security cameras to understand the situation.
What do the authorities say?
In a statement, the city of Cairu informed that the Center for Strategic Information on Health Surveillance (Cievs), of the State Health Secretariat (Sesab), was activated to investigate the case.
The municipal management also said that there is the anti-arachnid serum at the headquarters of the regional Health Department, in Gandu, and in the reference hospital units, where the patient was transferred.
“After initial evaluation, the patient was referred to Santa Casa de Valença, the only hospital of greater complexity in the region. Later, he was transferred to the Heart Institute (Incar) in Santo Antônio de Jesus, where he remained hospitalized for a few days. Unfortunately, the patient died,” the note said.
The Secretary of Health of the Municipality of Cairu, Janine Fonseca, regretted what happened and said that the protocols will be strictly followed.
“We are committed to ensuring the safety and health of our population and visitors. We will continue to strictly follow all established protocols and work together with all competent authorities to clarify this incident,” he said.
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