March 21st, 2010 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, True Stories
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Last spring there was a news story about a man who said he saved his dog’s life by sucking venom from a rattlesnake bite out of the animal’s nose. After he performed this lifesaving feat and took his dog to a veterinarian, he reportedly began feeling ill himself.
It is further reported that he went to a hospital and received four vials of antivenom. The dog reportedly had its head swell up to three times its normal size and it also was administered antivenom. The man and his dog recovered. Read more »
This post, Snake Bites: Should You Suck The Venom Out Or Not?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
February 27th, 2010 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Uncategorized
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When I was a medical student, I served a summer externship in 1975 with the Indian Health Service at Fort Belknap in Harlem, Montana. On some hot summer evenings, I went fishing at a place the locals called “Snake Lake,” which was loaded with cutthroat trout, and surrounded by rocky outcroppings that were home to scores of rattlesnakes. I was advised to stay away from the rocks, and to always wear long pants.
In the December, 2009 issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine (Ann Emerg Med 2009;54:830-836), there appeared an article reporting a study by Shelton Herbert, PhD and William Hayes, PhD entitled “Denim Clothing Reduces Venom Expenditure by Rattlesnakes Striking Defensively at Model Human Limbs.” The purpose of the study was to determine whether ordinary clothing (denim material from blue jeans) interferes with the kinematics of venom delivery, thereby reducing the amount of venom injected by a typical snake into a (model) human limb. Read more »
This post, Blue Jeans May Offer Protection From Rattlesnake Bites, was originally published on
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June 20th, 2009 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network
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Snakebite continues to be a significant public health issue worldwide. In the current issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine (2009;20:43-56), Ian Simpson and Robert Norris have published an article entitled, “The Global Snakebite Crisis – A Public Health Issue Misunderstood, Not Neglected.” In this very well thought out concept paper, the authors introduce a marketing model to examine global snakebite and to identify if the current approach to treatment (specifically, with antivenom) is relevant and effective. They use a model to examine if the correct products are available, whether sufficient information exists concerning estimated market size, whether the assumptions frequently made about the costs of the product are correct and fully understood, if the product is promoted properly, and whether the method by which the product reaches the end user is optimum.
By their reasoning, the authors present the case that perhaps the current approach to antivenom issues is not adequate, and compounded by a lack of implementation of key solutions, such as training doctors in developing countries with relevant protocols.
Multiple flaws in snake antivenom (ASV) production and distribution are revealed, including selection of venoms against which to create ASVs, unscrupulous behavior by certain manufacturers, assumptions about the epidemiology of snakebites, definition of envenomation syndromes, estimations of mortality, sustainability of the current economic model, and others. The authors do not merely sit back and take shots at what they perceive to be flaws. They offer a practical model for how it might be possible to achieve solutions for most of these issues.
This paper has already stimulated a great deal of discussion, and will undoubtedly be viewed by some readers as provocative. The topic of snake bite, and therefore ASV production, distribution, and use, is on the agenda of the World Health Organization. Anyone interested in venomous snakebite and the medical-economic-social-political issues related to antivenom and other medical interventions for envenomation, would be interested in reading this paper carefully, and considering how best to determine if there is a need to validate the contentions and suggestions.
image courtesy of www.itsnature.org
This post, Snakebite: Global Public Health Menace, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
