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Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

latimes.com

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Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#91

Post by earthling8118 »

itsoktocry wrote: post #71
lupusreal wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plus, in a ton of states, driving is a privilege, not a right. I've lost my license a few times A few times? How on earth have you been so unlucky? They won't take your license away just for speeding, let alone to a hospital, and even if that happened once to somebody I can't imagine it happening 'a few times' to a single person. Sorry to be blunt, but were you driving drunk?

This was my reaction as well. The only people I've ever known to have lost their license were either drunk driving or speeding excessively (ie 35mph+ over the posted speed limit). How do you innocently lose your license on multiple occassions?

Some places will take your license for much, much, much simpler things than that. 3 tickets of any kind in a year's period is enough to lose your license in Iowa for example.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#92

Post by earthling8118 »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #61
dreamcompiler wrote: post #50

Statistically this seems much less of a big deal for the US than for elsewhere. Total number of fatal snakebites per year, worldwide: 138,000 (article points this out). Total number of those in the US: 5. (Not 5%; 5 people.) If you can get to any decent hospital within a few hours after a bite, you'll probably live. If you're one of the unlucky 5 who cannot, then yes this pill might be a good idea.

It's not like being stung by a bee or something. Snake bites easily lead to lifelong disabilities

Similar to COVID19, people seem to only care about the binary life/death scenario.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#93

Post by hansvm »

lupusreal wrote: post #70
hansvm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US that's still crazy exciting. Most of my hikes (at least, before I moved to the Bay), I'd rarely be within a 3h jog of the closest place a chopper could land, and that's assuming you have a satphone or something to actually contact the outside world. Plus, in a ton of states, driving is a privilege, not a right. I've lost my license a few times after the judge in question said I was justified but some bureau…

> Plus, in a ton of states, driving is a privilege, not a right. I've lost my license a few times A few times? How on earth have you been so unlucky? They won't take your license away just for speeding, let alone to a hospital, and even if that happened once to somebody I can't imagine it happening 'a few times' to a single person. Sorry to be blunt, but were you driving drunk?

No, just speeding (and "a few" here means twice [0]). Once only 21mph over (still over 100mph in total), once pretty excessively. It was a fairly automatic extrajudicial process for anyone with enough proof of driving fast enough, regardless of what punishment (if any) came out of the trial.

[0] https://xkcd.com/1070/

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#94

Post by standardly »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #82
cuonic wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car related deaths worldwide in 2018: 1.35 million (Source: https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index... ) How would you feel if you had lost a loved one to a car, even if they engaged in walking around at night or another dangerous activity ? I don't see any one rushing to eradicate cars...

I don't drive a snake to work. I don't use a snake for my livelihood. I don't take my snake down the hill for groceries. I can't load all my kids and their stuff in the snake to go see family. Your comparison is lazy and ridiculous. Nonetheless, there are people trying to get cars out of cities (and I wish them luck).

> I don't drive a snake to work.

I mean, it would be cooler if you did.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#96

Post by AnimalMuppet »

standardly wrote: post #95

The best preventative action against snakebite is in fact pre-emptive strike. Don't wait until after being bitten to take anti-venom, it's too late then!

I presume this is sarcasm.

But in case it's not... snakes do not bite me on the average day. Should I take antivenom every day, just in case? That may not be entirely free from side effects.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#97

Post by standardly »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #96
standardly wrote: post #95

The best preventative action against snakebite is in fact pre-emptive strike. Don't wait until after being bitten to take anti-venom, it's too late then!

I presume this is sarcasm. But in case it's not... snakes do not bite me on the average day. Should I take antivenom every day, just in case? That may not be entirely free from side effects.

Yeah, it's sarcasm. Preemptive strike is not recommended

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#98

Post by tourmalinetaco »

bluGill wrote: post #13
rurp wrote: post #2

It's unclear to me how much damage the pill prevents versus simply delaying it. I didn't see any clear statements on that in the article and there are a few quotes like, "intended to at least buy victims enough time to get to the hospital." If victims still need anti-venom to prevent serious injury then the drug is much less exciting. As the article points out anti-venom treatments are expensive, unreliable, and hard…

This seems to be about India, so I don't know how my local conditions apply to this pill. For rattlesnake bites the anti-venom has a 3 month shelf life and is expensive. Such snakebites are very rare (at least the local rattlesnake where I live). As such even though most rural areas have more rattlesnakes than humans, the local hospitals don't have anti-venom: most of the time it would expire unused. So if this pill…

My professor told me a story related to this. Now he was in WV, working on machines for the coal mines. Dead of winter, like a mile underground. Someone gets bit by a copperhead. At some point it must have hitched a ride on something and got brought into the mine. They had to fly the guy all the way to Columbus, OH to get the anti-venom because no one was stocking it during the Winter.
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