How to simplify the treatment of snake bites

SNAKE VENOM kills around 140,000 people a year and debilitates roughly 400,000 others. One reason for these large numbers is that every venom needs a specific antivenin to treat it. In places with rich ophidian faunas, dozens of antivenins may therefore need to be kept to hand.

Even if these are available, though, they are no guarantee of success. Someone who has been bitten may not have seen the assailant, or may be an unreliable witness. Only if the snake itself has been caught or killed can medics be sure what they are dealing with.

To make things worse still, administering the wrong antivenin may not merely be useless, but dangerous, for incorrect treatment sometimes provokes a further adverse reaction. In addition, antivenins themselves, which are made by injecting snake venom into large, robust animals such as horses and then collecting serum containing the antibodies generated, have to be kept refrigerated. Unfortunately, many of the tropical areas in which venomous snakes are abundant and diverse are also those where continuous supplies of electricity for refrigeration cannot be taken for granted. And, to cap things off, antivenins must be injected rather than being taken orally, so the person doing the injecting requires at least a modicum of training.

This, then, is a field that seems ripe for...