Anti-Venom treatments....

Stephentlig

Was just wondering what people thought about the possibility of creating an anti-venom drug that people who live in high risk areas would take every day, thus when a snake bites them they would be immune from it.

Has anyone ever created such a drug? am I even posting this in the right forum?

Pax Christi
Stephen

DrIndy

The trouble here is to which species?

In north queensland, there are 4 venomous snakes of significance, 1 poisonous spider (redback) and 2 lethal marine jellyfish (Chironex and Irakundji).

There is anecdotal evidence that self injecting venom causes immunity - but it may also cause allergy which kills faster than the venom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridatism

But remember that most snake venoms actually contain several active toxins - from paralysis, tissue coagulants, anticoagulants and differing compounds between snakes. So this remains a challenge.

Capt'n Midnight

Komodo Dragons have venom but they also have a cocktail of nasty bacteria so your wounds get infected. Humans have over 400 species of bacteria in our mouths and that's without having rotting carrion stuck in our teeth most of the time.

We still haven't sorted out an vaccine against the bacteria that cause plaque on our teeth ( streptococcus mutans / other streptococci ). even though it's a major risk factor for early heart disease

Anti venom isn't cheap and you also have the huge problem of risk equalisation, which means people who think they don't have to worry about snake bites , may not worry about snake bites and so are more likely to get bitten. ( People drive faster with an airbag in the steering wheel than they would if there was a harpoon there )

Anti venom isn't cheap, maybe there are better ways of spending the money, like educating people about avoiding conflicts with snakes.
http://www.transport-watch.co.uk/transport-fact-sheet-10.htm
In the UK they are spending over 70 times as much on rail safety than on road safety based on the cost to save one life.


You also need to consider the risks - less people died in the troubles in the North than have died on our roads since we've had penalty points + NCT + motorways. ( even in the North you were 3 times more likely to die in a road accident )

Tourists need to be warned of dangers rather than rely on medical intervention. There are package holidays to parts of the world where you really need to be immunised and take anti-malaria tablets but the brochure doesn't always say that :eek:

More people drown in deserts than die of thirst.
If you know the risks you can plan accordingly, most people in a desert bring water, but can get caught out by flash floods.