Spider email 'a hoax' | Australian Herald

Spider email 'a hoax'

ABC Saturday 7th May, 2011

A Newcastle toxicologist says a hoax email about a dangerous spider that causes the flesh-eating condition necrosis, does have elements of truth. The email, purporting to be from the Red Cross, claims the Recluse spider is found all over Eastern Australia and shows images of a man suffering severe necrosis. Toxicologist Geoff Isbister is about to publish a paper about the spider, and says it is one of the few spiders whose bite can cause necrosis, but it has only been seen twice in Australia. "So it's not a spider that's important to Australia, but in other parts of the world and in South America, yes, it's a medically very important spider," he said. "There is truth in the fact that loxosceles - or the recluse spider, or the fiddle-back spider, brown recluse, are all the different nam...

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