The “jack jumper” ant (Myrmecia pilosula) is a major cause of anaphylaxis in Tasmania. We describe four deaths attributed to stings by this ant between 1980 and 1999. All victims were men aged 40 years or over with significant comorbidities; two were taking angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitors, which may increase risk of severe anaphylaxis. Three victims had known ant‐sting allergy, but only one carried adrenaline, which he did not use. Another believed he was protected by previous attempts at hyposensitisation with whole ant‐body extract. There is potential to prevent deaths by careful education of people with known allergy, prescribing of adrenaline for auto‐injection and development of an effective hyposensitisation therapy. (MJA 2001; 175: 644‐647)

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Summary In this article, we conducted: I Study on comparisons of serological activity between phenolic glycolipid (PG I) and its terminal sugar which was a synthetic antigen conjugated to bovine gamma globulin. The sera for comparison were collected from leprosy patients (182 cases), tuberculosis patients (20 cases), and normal persons (108 cases, in non endemic area of leprosy). The results indicated that there was highly significant positive correlation (correlation coefficient, r=O.72 p<0.0005) between PGI and M-BGG (monosaccharide conjugated to bovine gamma globulin) antigens and their OD values in sera from normal persons similar to those of sera from tuberculosis patients. These suggested that PGI-ELISA and M-BGG-ELISA were highly specific for detection of infection with My cobacterium leprae. When comparison tests of PGI-ELISA with ML-ELISA were performed, similar sensitivity ofthe two tests to sera from leprosy patients was fo und. These tests suggested that PGI-ELISA and M-BGG-ELISA were as highly sensitive as ML-ELISA to sera from leprosy patients. For these reasons, PGI-and M-BGG-ELISA, were both considered highly sensitive and specific for detection of infection with M. leprae. 2 Study on correlation of PGI ELISA with ML-ELISA and FLA-ABS.T. The results indicated that they were also highly significant in positive correlation (correlation coefficient, 'FLA ABS.T = 0.945 p