Antivenom Topics

• world health organization
• snake antivenom
• coral snake
• endotracheal intubation
• medication section
• respiratory paralysis
• mechanical ventilation
• veterinary officers
• immunological responses
• respiratory failure
• snakebite
• pharmacopoeia
• antibodies
• immune response
• venom
• molecule
• anticipation
• goat
• fda
• sheep

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Antivenom, Antivenom

Antivenom is created by injecting a small amount of the targeted venom into an animal such as a horse, sheep, goat, or rabbit; the subject animal will suffer an immune response to the venom, producing antibodies against the venom's active molecule which can then be harvested from the animal's blood and used to treat envenomation in others. Internationally, antivenoms must carefully meet the standards of Pharmacopoeia and the World Health Organization (WHO).

See, for example, the Antivenom Precautions paragraph of the Medication section of Sheep are generally used in preference over horses now, however, as the potential for adverse immunological responses in humans from sheep-derived antibodies is generally somewhat less than that from horse-derived antibodies. The use of horses to raise antibodies - in Australia at least, where much antivenom research has been undertaken (by Sutherland and others for example) - has been attributed to the research base originally having been a large number of veterinary officers.

It was approved by the FDA in October, 2000. U.S. Coral snake antivenom is no longer manufactured and remaining stocks of in-date antivenom for coral snakebite will expire in the Fall of 2009 leaving the U.S. without a Coral snake antivenom at this time (January, 2009). Efforts are being made to obtain approval for a Coral snake antivenom produced in Mexico which would work against U.S. coral snakebite but such approval remains speculative. In the absence of antivenom, all coral snakebite should be treated in a hospital by elective endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation until the effects of coral snake neurotoxins abate. It is important to remember that respiratory paralysis in coral snakebite can occur suddenly, often up to 12 or more hours after the bite, so intubation and ventilation should be employed in anticipation of respiratory failure and not after it occurs when it may be too late.

Source: Wikipedia > Antivenom