Snake Antivenom Shortage

Genesis 14 God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."
- World English Bible

On October 31st of this year, the US was scheduled to run out of antivenom for coral snake bites. The sole US manufacturer of the antivenom, Wyeth (now owned by Pfizer), stopped making the drug back in 2003 since, with fewer than 100 coral bites per year, there was no money to be made with this product. Before they shut down the factory, Wyeth made a five year supply to last through 2008. When no new supplier entered the US market, the FDA tested the drug and extended the expiration date to 2009 and then again extended to Oct 31, 2010.

Now the FDA has authorized a third extension for 2011. BUT there may not be 100 does left to last the next year. Hospitals are keeping mum on how much they have left out of fear that their last few doses will be transferred elsewhere.

Corals are the deadliest snakes native to the U.S. They inject a potent neurotoxin by grabbing hold of their prey and gnawing for 20 to 30 seconds with their little teeth. The bite and the poison cause little pain initially, but within hours victims experience slurred speech, droopy eyelids, and eventually the lungs shutdown. Without antivenom victims usually need to be placed on a ventilator or they die.
Corals can be found across the entire southern US from Kentucky, through the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana, all of Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The US varieties are most notable for their red, yellow/white, and black colored banding. There some non-poisonous mimic snakes that look like corals but have a different banding pattern:

If red touches yellow - it kills a fellow 
If red touches black, it is a friend of Jack (or it poison lacks)

Bottom Line

The VIPER institute at the University of Arizona is working with the FDA for approval of an antivenom from a Mexican manufacturer. However this won't be easy and will take time. In the meantime - avoid colorful snakes! 

Safety Mnemonics

“A snake deserves no pity”- Yiddish Proverb

Since the theme this week has been memory, I’ll close with some safety mnemonics.

Green Beret Myke Hawke offers a handy mnemonic for remembering which berries are safe to eat in the wild:

White and yellow, kill a fellow.
Purple and blue, good for you.
Red... could be good, could be dead.

If red berries are growing in little clusters, they're probably not good. If they're growing in little singletons, they probably are good.

First Aid books teach ABCD for responding to someone not breathing:

A = Tilt the head back to open the Airway
B = Check for Breathing
C = Check for Circulation (a pulse or heartbeat). Begin CPR if needed.
D = Use a Deliberator if no pulse

When sailing at night you'll see red lights and green lights but which is port and which is starboard, which is left and which is right?

I think of red as a port wine.
I link port with left because both are spelled with 4 letters.

The following mnemonic identifies the poisonous coral snake of North America from similar looking snakes. I’ve called it to mind a few times when seeing a black snake with color bands (see Bottom Line below):

Red on Yellow Kills a Fellow,
Red on Black, Venom Lack

Bottom Line

The danger of a mnemonic is remembering it wrong! When looking for a picture of a coral snake with Google images I kept seeing yellow bands on black. This did not match my memory:

Yellow on black – poison lack [WRONG!]
Black on white – poison in sight

In preparing for this blog I’ve learned that I’ve been completely wrong all my life about which snake was safe and which was deadly. Good thing I never tried to pick one up! Yellow and white on black are both signs of danger. It can be hard to distinguish yellow from white so treat both as deadly.

Another person had a similar experience - this is from a comment on LifeHacker.com

Speaking of mnemonics, when I was about 11, my Dad and his buddies called me outside and showed me this pretty snake. "Catch it, Ali!" they said. "Look, the yellow and the black bands are together-yellow and black, friend of Jack!" I chased the snake around for a minute before looking up and saying, "Ummm....Dad-the red and black bands are next to each other, too!" Yeah, my Dad had me chasing around a coral snake!