Clinical features and outcomes of scorpion sting in western lowland of Eritrea: a prospective descriptive study

Abstract Background Scorpion envenomation is a public health problem that results in a life-threatening medical emergency in tropical and subtropical regions. Paediatric victims are more at risk to severe envenomation compared to adults. Objectives This study aimed to determine clinical features and outcome of patients hospitalized due to scorpion stings at the Tesseney Community Hospital. Methods A prospective, descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from 1 st June 2019 to 31 st May 2020 on patients hospitalized due to scorpion stings at the Tesseney Community Hospital. Results 165 scorpion sting patients were admitted during the study period. Majority were older than 15 years old (61.8%) with an approximately equal male-to-female sex ratio (0.94:1). Scorpion sting cases largely belonged to urban (57%) compared to rural areas. The black scorpion (38.8%) was the predominately identified scorpion, but in a proportion of cases the scorpion colour was undetermined (31.5%). The foot was predominate sting site (64.8%) followed by hand (31.5%). A single sting (91.5%) was more frequently presented compared to multiple stings (8.5%). Majority (94.8%) of scorpion sting cases occurred during the summer period with highest scorpion stings counts belonging to September and October. The main clinical manifestations upon presentation were localized pain (70.3%) and sweating (56.4%) with more severe symptoms exhibited amongst age groups less than 15 years old. The fatality rate (4.8%) was largely associated age groups less than 15 years old with (p = 0.006, OR: 2.845; 95% CI: 0.656-12.343). Conclusion Our study found children experienced more severe envenoming symptoms with related mortality compared to adults. This study may be a tool to identify at-risk population groups and build measures to prevent scorpion stings within the western lowlands of Eritrea.