Hope something comes of this. If I understood this correctly it is basically an existing medication.
I say the numbers quoated are bullshit! My state has had only one death in recent history and SC is crawling with snakes.
You all are about midrange on bites in the US. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/snake-bite-statistics-by-state
Most deaths are in the third world. Fatal snakebites are relatively rare in the US.
It’s a promising option as a first line in austere environments. Patients requiring CroFab/Anivip are fairly uncommon short those at the extremes of age or a bite that happens to directly inject into vasculature.
I’m in the Philippines at the moment, so this is Cobra country.
The locals don’t even care, they just drive on. However a lot of them have a dog with them about 70% of the time.
In NC we have a handful of venomous snakes but I would have to do research to see when the last death was. It’s been that long. We give cro-fab like water, it a) it’s expensive, and b) the side effects are often worse than the snakebite. If I am bitten by anything short of a rattlesnake, I will decline it.
This drug looks promising. The third world need it.
I was kinda surprised NC was #2 on the US snake bite list, but that’s probably due to 99% of my time in NC being in the Smokies/TN border area which is probably on the cool side for a lot of snakes.
It would be interesting if the info lists how many bite deaths are due directly to the venom versus secondary effects like infections?
In the US it’s about 5 deaths per year.
Tennessee has 4 poisonous snakes. I can’t remember the last death reported. Outside hospital gives a lot of crofab for no good reason. I think we’ve flown around 6 pts in the last 10 years who developed limb threatening compartment syndrome or coagulapathy that needed the higher level of care. The real kicker is referring facilities or EMS will catch the live snake and put in a bucket so we can take to the trauma center. We have to inform them that we don’t need a specimen and they can keep their new pet.
NC has the largest and most venomous rattlesnake, the Eastern Diamondback, but their bites are extremely rare. We also have the coral snake and the last time someone was bitten by one of those has been so long ago I can’t find it in any existing literature. Most venomous snake bites are copperheads.
Snakebites are all about 1) how much did you get; 2) what else is wrong with you, and 3) how far from resources are you. Always good to have more options. CONUS, snakebite issues are overblown. Many bites are dry, then infection and necrosis, anaphylaxis, and other cardiac or respiratory issues due to panic. The farther you are from resources the more the deck stacks, but most will be fine. Lots of air and ground transport for snakebites because protocol, not presentation. More species or remote conditions OCONUS, more issue. Still, tends to be more about available resources than inherent lethality.
Always good to have options.
Tx: clean, dress, monitor, transport.
I didn’t know there were coral snakes in NC. My Dad had a reprint of a WPA(or similar 1930’s agency) publication claiming coral snakes were here in KY, but have never seen that claimed anywhere else.
I would assume copperheads account for the most bites here also and I was probably mid stride from adding to the total this past August. Timber rattlers are less common, but found in most of the state except far north. Cottonmouths and pygmy rattlesnakes are allegedly only out in western KY.
Coral snakes are very, very rare, but seen just enough on the coast near South Carolina to stay on the list. We have it, water moccasins, cottonmouths, and four types of rattlesnakes.
I’ve always been into snakes. My dad’s best friend was a guy named Bill Palmer, he was the state herpetologist, he got my dad into it, I got into it.
I don’t care what people are actually bitten by, but locally every swinging you-know-what shows up to the ED because they were bitten by a copperhead and they are dying. Probably 20% had a for-real wet bite, and most of those get cro-fab.
I had a co-worker get bit by a copperhead, she didn’t go to the ED, she managed it at home. Her arm got swollen and terrifically bruised and it hurt but in a week it was better.
A lady one of my friends worked with got bit by a copperhead on her hand/arm while working in her garden and during the 30 to 45 minute drive to the hospital had the skin on her arm split open from the swelling. I can’t remember if he mentioned she received antivenin or not, but assumed antibiotics were a biggy.
I have a scar on my right arm from a rattlesnake bite. I was 7 or 8 years old, on the side of a mountain in West Texas. They put me in the truck and drove me to a veterinarian’s office.
I got a coke with ice in it to hold against my arm and a roll of Lifesaver’s candy for the trip home. No serious amount of venom injected, and I never went to an ER.
If I was back living in Thailand, I’d probably buy a bottle of his medicine. I watch two people die of snakebite there.
I live in Texas now, so I’ll pass.
Yes, as much as I despise snakes, the ones in Third World countries make ours pale by comparison as far as venom is concerned: Fer de Lance, Bushmaster, Cobra, Mamba, Kraits, etc. The first two I had on the radar as an Infantry dude in Panama…helluva place for someone quite afraid of snakes to be sent to!
Got stung by a stingray in Puerto Vallarta many years ago, they say it is the equivalent of a snake bite. Hurt like a bitch and the neurotoxin made my calf muscles twitch, but I am here telling about it!
Here’s a thread a buddy of mine started some years ago that has some pics of my journey with rattlers…not sure how I made it out all these years without being tagged myself.
A couple of dogs not so lucky.
After reading this I asked my Brother in Law about Cobras locally in PI.
He told me they used to live in a Nipa hut. A sort of bamboo house on stilts surrounded by a corral to keep the Water Buffalo, goats and various livestock secure from theft or predators at night.
He said when he was six or so he woke up to pee and
left the house and corral (like a big boy, he said) and began pissing when a Cobra reared up right in front of him . He said he ran as he pissed and jumped the fence in one bound and realized there was no shame in using the chamber pot.
I’ve not seen a Cobra outside of the Zoo here and I do daily walks through the jungle to Town. I’m pretty sure they are as scared of me as I am of them and the dogs give them early warning to get out of the way.
I grew up on a ranch in Arizona so rattlers were pretty common, we did catch a Coral Snake one evening. I do believe that you might have to work at getting bit by one.
The Fer De Lance is an overarching name to a class of a couple snakes. The reason they are so venomous is because of their venom load, and they have a rep because they are pissy. The Bushmaster is a very bad bite, and has a high mortality, even with treatment.
The Taipan, cobra, brown snake, mamba, krait… yeah, I don’t want to screw with any of them. I have not seen most outside of zoos or museums, but saw cobras when I was deployed. They are actually pretty chill unless you piss them off, they just as soon go their own way.