Franco Aiello, a 52-year-old police officer, died on Friday, July 12, in Palermo hospital from a spider bite. A rare but not unprecedented case.
“Dear Franco, you will be missed by everyone.” Italian public media Rai reported on Saturday, July 13, the death of an Italian gendarme that occurred the day before in Sicily. Franco Aiello, a 52-year-old man, died from a bite from a violin spider.
The sting was not immediately fatal, as the man had been hit the previous Sunday while gardening. His ankle then turned red. A few days later, he was admitted to the Cervello hospital in Palermo, where the situation then worsened.
“Dear Franco, everyone here will miss you… We will especially miss your sincerity, your way of seeing life and facing the world; we will miss your role as a friend and confidant,” friends paid tribute to him on Facebook, according to RAI and a local radio.
Precedents in Italy and France
The violinist spider is found throughout southern Europe, particularly around the Mediterranean. Small but dangerous, measuring only 6 to 9 millimeters, the arachnid gets its nickname from a small spot that looks like a violin on its back.
The venom of this spider can in some cases cause death in humans. However, it is cytotoxic, meaning that it is not released with every bite. However, the creature would only attack humans if it is threatened.
As explained in Parisian Christine Rollard, a spider specialist at the National Museum of Natural History, said the venom is not fatal as such, but its consequences can be fatal in people “with a fragile immune system.”
“It is not a deadly spider. People do not die from the direct action of the venom, but from infections, necrosis and burns of the skin,” the specialist says.
The serious effects (amputation, death) would only represent “10% of the cases recorded in the world”, explained this same specialist in 2015 to Science and the future.
A fatal bite had already been recorded in Italy in the Lazio region, in the center of the country, in June 2023. A 58-year-old man had also died from a bite following an allergic reaction. In France, several non-fatal cases were reported during the 2010s, such as in Vaucluse or Seine-et-Marne.
