Causes
Bee stings usually occur in the summer months. However, they are possible from March to October, as bees and wasps are active during these months. The insects are more likely to sting if they feel disturbed – for example by hectic movements, noise, certain smells or if they get caught in clothing or hair.
Quiet movements and covering clothes help to reduce bee stings. After each sting, there is pain, itching, swelling and redness at the sting site. The symptoms are caused by the poison that is brought from the poison sac via the sting under the skin.
In nature, the poison serves as a defence mechanism and contains various proteins that can kill cells and damage nerves. In technical terminology, the substances relevant to the toxic effect of bee venom are called “peptides” and “phospholipases”. In some people, components of bee venom, especially “phospholipase A2″, trigger an allergic reaction. The reason for this is a hypersensitivity of the immune system. The predisposition to the development of such an allergy can be inherited; the allergy itself only develops after contact with the allergen.
Diagnosis
In practice, the diagnosis of a bee or wasp sting is usually made during a consultation with a doctor. The majority of those affected have seen the insect and know that it was a bee or wasp. It may be relevant in the case of more severe symptoms to distinguish bees from wasps because more poison is injected into the wound during a bee sting and the sting including the poison sac remains stuck in the skin. In people with strong symptoms at the stinging site or general symptoms such as shortness of breath, an allergy test should also be carried out after a bee sting in order to be able to react correctly to a new sting.
Associated symptoms
In most cases, a bee sting causes only local symptoms at the site of the sting. These include redness and swelling, itching, skin rash and possibly a slight bleeding at the sting site. The affected area is usually smaller than 10 cm in diameter.
As a rule, the symptoms decrease significantly within minutes or a few hours and disappear without any consequences. In children, even if they are not allergic to bee venom, they may occasionally develop malaise, chills and fever. These general symptoms usually disappear within a short time.
If the bee or wasp sting is on the neck or even inside the mouth, the swelling can lead to life-threatening shortness of breath. In this case a doctor should be consulted as soon as possible. If a large number of bee stings follow each other within a short period of time, an inflammatory reaction can occur in the whole body, which may lead to organ damage.
For children, about a dozen stings are sufficient, for adults considerably more stings are necessary. People with an allergy to bee venom can develop gastrointestinal problems such as vomiting and diarrhoea, shortness of breath or even respiratory arrest, heart palpitations and low blood pressure or even shock, depending on the amount of venom and the severity of the allergy. Itching at the site of the sting is a normal symptom of bee stings.
In children and rarely in adults, a general reaction with itching all over the body can also occur. In people with bee venom allergy, itching after a bee sting regularly occurs all over the body. If the symptoms are limited to the area of the sting, cooling can relieve the itching – cool packs or creams can be used for this purpose. Ointments with anti-allergic active ingredients such as an antihistamine also alleviate the symptoms. They are available without prescription from pharmacies and can be applied several times a day if the symptoms persist.
