Authorities have warned the public to be careful handling langsats, a tropical fruit, after two women were stung by scorpions.
The women, stung on two days last week, each spent a night in hospital and were discharged after treatment for swollen, inflamed fingers.
In the first case, a 64-year-old woman was stung on the middle finger while taking some langsats - also known as lanzones, or long ku in Cantonese - from a plastic bag on May 2. She said the fruit was bought from a stall in Hung Hom.
A spokesman for the Centre for Health Protection said yesterday the finger immediately became swollen, numb and inflamed. The woman was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital that day and discharged the next.
In the other case, a 32-year-old woman's right little finger was stung as she took langsats from a refrigerator on May 3. She said she bought a bag of the fruit from a stall in a market in Yau Ma Tei.
She went to the same hospital immediately and was discharged the following day.