Snake venoms are among most potent ones that can be found in nature. Some are so powerful that they were used as weapon in ancient times. Archers would dip the tip of their arrows into venom before shooting them. Some of the venoms are quite terrifying, like the one used by Bothrops asper, which can cause tissue necrosis, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that people often tend to panic when they see a snake, regardless of the species. But only 250 species of snakes, out of some 725 venomous ones, can kill a grown man with a single bite. And most of them are more scared of us, than we are of them. Only exceptions to this rule are king cobras and black mambas, which are known to have attack humans without provocation.
A venomous snake can choose when to inject poison through the bite, meaning that envenomation is completely voluntary. Depending on the species, not venomous bites, so called dry bites, can be as high as 50 percent of all bites. But even then, snakebite may cause a limb amputation.
Snake venom comes in four main flavours:
1. Cytotoxins
2. Hemotoxins
3. Neurotoxins
4. Cardio toxins
Each of this can kill you in different way, some by paralysing your hear, some by disabling your body to process oxygen.
Estimates say that approximately 5 million snakebites happen every year worldwide. Some 125 thousand deaths are caused by them. Tropical regions are more exposed to snakebites, as well as agricultural areas. These areas are more prone to snakebites because of the large population of both humans and snakes sharing the same living space. In United States alone five to ten people die from snakebites every year. Most of the time, people get bitten because they either provoked the snake or because they startled it. As most animals, snake tend to stay away from people as far as they can, and will only attack if feel threatened. That is why it is so important to make as much noise as possible while hiking through area you know contains snakes. If the snake can hear you, it will get out of your way.
Even though majority of snakes are not poisonous, a person bitten should immediately seek medical help, unless you are trained to recognize the snake that bit you with utmost certainty. Do not be fooled if you don’t feel any pain or some other symptom. Depending on the type of snake, some venom can take hours to start developing symptoms inside your body.
The most used treatment against snakebites is anti-venom therapy. Anti-venom is derived from the blood of the horse, who has been receiving increasing doses of venom until he became immune to it. That is why people who are allergic to horses cannon be treated this way. Anti-venom can be species specific, meaning it only works with one species of snakes, or polyvalent. In United States all venomous snakes are either pit vipers or coral snakes, there fore polyvalent anti-venom has been developed for treatment of both types of poison.
