Why Snakebites Are About to Get a Lot More Deadly

As venomous snakes go, the coral snake is a clumsy biter. Unlike pit vipers such as rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, which have gruesomely efficient fangs that articulate forward during a strike and inject venom like hypodermic needles, the brightly colored coral snake has small, rear-facing fangs that guide venom into a wound. This process doesn't always work well — experts estimate that 25 percent of coral snake envenomations are dry bites — which is perhaps why the coral is so unaggressive. The snake is found throughout Florida, as well as in parts of Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona, but there are generally only about 100 or so bites each year.

snip

Unfortunately, after Oct. 31 of this year, there may be no commercially available antivenom (antivenin) left. That's the expiration date on existing vials of Micrurus fulvius, the only antivenom approved by the Food and Drug Administration for coral snake bites. Produced by Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer, the antivenom was approved for sale in 1967, in a time of less stringent regulation.

Wyeth kept up production of coral snake antivenom for almost 40 years. But given the rarity of coral snake bites, it was hardly a profit center, and the company shut down the factory that made the antivenom in 2003. Wyeth worked with the FDA to produce a five-year supply of the medicine to provide a stopgap while other options were pursued. After that period, the FDA extended the expiration date on existing stock from 2008 to 2009, and then again from 2009 to 2010. But as of press time, no new manufacturer has stepped forward.

Antivenom shortages are a surprisingly common occurrence. The entire state of Arizona ran out of antivenom for scorpion stings after Marilyn Bloom, an envenomation specialist at Arizona State University, retired in 1999. Bloom had been single-handedly making all the scorpion antivenom for state hospitals. Recently, Merck & Co, the only FDA-licensed producer of black widow antivenom, has cut back distribution because of a production shortage of the drug. In a 2007 report, the World Health Organization listed worldwide envenomations as a "neglected public health issue."


link:
http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-life/bigger-picture/article.aspx?cp-documentid=24682236>1=32001

Just like healthcare, unemployment and social security, the new rule is the YOYO principle-You're On Your Own.

by a coral snake in the future and might die, and the parents realize that there USED to be an antivenom that would have saved him, but now they're out of luck. What an awful thing to let slide.

That is our lovely societal attitude.

Aren't we just the GREATEST?

Either that or step on them while barefooted.

Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone. Besides, they take so long to get the right grip to even be able to envenomate you that you would have time to pull it off whatever body part is trying to bite.

The badasses, in America, when it comes to possibly deadly bites, are still rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, but you are more likely to be bitten by a copperhead, which isn't nearly as deadly.

Coral snakes are here in eastern NC too. I've been around them at different times all my life. If you happen to get bitten by one of them, it's because you stood on it barefooted or messed with it too much. They will unass the area if they see you, in most cases.

if you didn't take into account very young children. At that point, most of what you just said becomes irrelevant. It's more likely that a child would suffer a bite and more likely they'll die from it. As a poster upthread said, how would you feel if you went to the Hospital with your young snake-bitten child and were told, "SORRY, that medicine expired and they don't make it anymore."?

:shrug:

as a coral snake might step on one or pick one up without knowing it was venemous. Antivenom can save them, both teh stupid and the plain unlucky. Just because it's not as great a threat as other snakes doesn't mean the antivenom should be allowed to go out of production forever--same as I wouldn't want to stop vaccinating for certain diseases that strike infrequently but can kill. Government may need to offer some incentive for a company to continue with these antivenoms.

There was that soldier on the Robin Sage annual maneuver near Camp McCall who got into a NEST of water mocassins and was killed a few years ago. Horrible.

I keep THIS webpage permanently bookmarked on my iPhone and whenever I come across a snake, I check to make sure it is a non-venomous snake, which most in North Carolina are, and then let it go on its way. There are only four basic venomous types, those you mentioned, of course - Eastern Coralsnake, Copperhead, Cottonmouch, Rattlesnakes. But there are 31 non-venoumous. Most snakes are fine and just want to be left alone:

http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/snakes/snakes.html

Funny how easy it is to confuse the coral snake with the scarlet kingsnake:



Eastern Coralsnake - VENOMOUS




Scarlet Kingsnake - SAFE

The coral snake always has a BLACK snout. And the yellow on it ALWAYS touches red AND black. Not so on the kingsnake




The Cottonmouth ('Water Mocassin')

My friend is a herpetologist who has a license to collect them. I raised them for a few years, and then we released them into the wild when they were big enough to have a good chance of surviving and breeding.

While I was standing around trying to remember how the saying went, I would be half-way swallowed by the snake.

"Yellow touches red...if he bites you, your dead."

LOL, that's just my own little version.


:P

A good way to remember how to tell the coral from a king snake is the saying: "Red and black. Won't attack. Red and yellow. Kill a fellow." I was taught that from the time I could walk.

Mocassins/cottonmouths are very interesting to me. I wouldn't want to tangle with one, but I do love looking at videos of them online. I love their "strike a pose" position (on video). There is a guy in NC, probably around 19 years old by now, who makes videos on Youtube of them. I wish he would become our eastern NC snake "wrangler" who will safely remove venomous snakes from people's yards for them.

Here is one of his videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyAHir1bKGQ

Still remember it from Boy Scouts, even though there are only two kinds of venomous snakes in Wisconsin. The Timber Rattlesnake and the Massasauga Rattler.

I spent some time in Florida as a kid and that is what my Grandpa taught me.

if it rattles, then skedaddle. Here in So. NV we have the Western Diamondback rattlesnake and the Sidewinder rattlesnake. The sidewinders scare the hell out of me because of the way they move. I think we also have water moccasins but I wouldn't swear to it, not sure about cottonmouths. We also have Gila Monsters, otherwise known as the Beaded Lizard. Oh yeah, we also have Black Widows and Brown Recluse spiders.

the same as water moccasins.

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

The water moccasin is sometimes called a cottonmouth, because of the pose they strike when they are defending themselves. If you see the cottonmouth in their strike position, you know you need to back off. They open their mouth and keep it open while they sit in strike position and wait for your next move. When they open their mouths like that, you see the cottony color of the inside of their mouth.

n/t

You do not find them in "nests". BTW, I'm a biologist, and have spent years working in cottonmouth habitat, and with experts on them and other venomous snakes. Any stories of cottonmouths in "nests" are urban legends.

BTW, no reason they should scare the shit out of you. Most of them want nothing to do with you. On numerous occasions, I've had them sitting within a couple of feet from me, just watching me, without me even realizing they were there for several minutes. They're not likely to bite unless you step on them or get in their faces. Just watch where you put your body parts, and leave them alone. You will be fine.

The soldier was bit several times, but it is possible I am remembering the incident incorrectly.

Here is one report on the incident: http://news.soc.mil/releases/News%20Archive/2008/September/080917-01.html

The reason they scare me, irrationally or not, is that you can't see what's in the water.

Ugh, ask me how I know.. bit three times as a kid in rural Virginia (never could pass up a pond to swim in).

or a hand or foot altogether.

Yep. I know several beagles who have survived multiple snake bites (cottomouth, rattlesnake). They are only 30 lbs. or so. No antivenin required. The wounds are nasty, but as you point out, not fatal, even in such a relatively small animal. Heck, half the time they're dry bites (no venom injected.)

a salt shaker for leeches
meat tenderizer for bee stings
a box of strike anywhere matches for ticks
fingernail polish for chiggers
bleach for poison ivy / oak
a snake bite kit w razor blade
.. and assorted bandages, antiseptics, etc.

By the end of summer, we'd used most of it at least once.

:rofl:

Did I just say that???

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Woo Boy...

What was I thinking?

:banghead:

BTW - What kind of screaming would ensue if the NIH decided to start making the stuff itself?

Tax payer funded, tax payer produced, for the protection of taxpayers, with absolutely NO profit involved.

:shrug:

RUN FOR YOU'RE LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 AAAACCCCK1!!11!!!!!1! :scared:



(edited to add mandatory wrong grammar/spelling)

HAHAHA Silly me
It's importation is probably restricted by federal law

:rofl:

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Cant believe we are witnessing the fall of civilization...

And it's got to make you wonder, how many other useful things are not produced because there is not sufficient profit in it? Is that any way to run a society?

Coral snakes are quite uncommon, I've hunted snakes all my life and only encountered a handful. As they are very secretive the chance of treading upon one barefoot is minuscule. If ya go messing with one their defensive behavior includes wild thrashing which given the banded pattern makes it very difficult to get a fix on the head. That alone should put off all but the most foolhardy, nonetheless those along with the extremely unlucky should have medical recourse.

To produce an item that's not in demand. You lose money doing that.

I don't see the government stepping up to the plate and producing their own antivenoms.

that does not meet human need.

Why should the profit of a few take precedent over human need?

*HEAVY-ARSE SARCASM*

issues, most are NOT profitable, and these companies are not in it to help their fellow man, but to help themselves.

It soon won't be worth the cost of repair.

Their bite will destroy all tissue in the area around the entry point and death will ensue if not attended to quickly. Most snakes will let you know of their presence one way or another but you can be bit by a Black Widow before you know they are near.

What's going to happen if Little Johnny gets bit by one of those snakes? Doctor: "We're sorry. We can't treat Little Johnny because the drug companies that did produce the antivenin decided to shut down production of it because there wasn't money to be made in producing antivenins."

Good god!

And, that's a bad, bad thing. Or, so we are being told.

these poisonous snakes should show up at Wyeth's HQ. A lot of them.

poisonous snakes look like cuddly little teddy bears compared to upper mgt???

:puke:

It would be one snake against another snake. I'm rooting for the coral snake and against the corporate snake. A coral snake has more value than a corporate snake.

America. We have only around 15 fatalities from snakebites annually. These are usually people that have compounding health problems. Kinda dumb to spend a fortune on it.

:sarcasm:

and quite frankly, there are some who deserve "no less."

Reading the entire article might have helped you
Since it points out (even in my OP) that we are running out of other kinds of anti-venom as well

efficiency!

*Of course* health care should be based on the principle of cost efficiency. If you spend the entire nation's GDP on it, you can save just about anyone from anything, but you also have to spend money on things like education and roads and treating all the other ill people too. And as medical science improves and people live longer, that's going to get to be even more the case.

In the UK, the NHS - which I would hold out as a reasonable model of how these things should be run - will licence a drug if the evidence suggests it will cost less than about £20,000-£30,000 per "quality adjusted life year" it provides. That seems like a sensible approach in any country, although the figure would need to be adjusted depending on economic conditions.

Saying "you can't put a value on a human life" is a very tempting and very harmful position: when you are placed in the position of having a large but finite amount of money to spend and many expensive things which will potentially save or improve people's lives, if you want to do the maximum amount of good then that's exactly what you have to do.




Incidentally, if zero people have died of coral snake bite it doesn't take much luck not to be one of them...

They need to pay someone to make antivenom or make it themselves, in a government-run facility. Whatever is easiest and most likely to last.

Some things cannot be left to the free market.