What You Need To Know About Snakebites
Eastern coral snake, photo courtesy of Norman Benton, CC-BY-SA 3.0
The Wilderness Medical Society held its annual meeting at Snowmass last summer July 23-28, 2010. There were numerous terrific educational sessions. In a series of posts, I am going to highlight some of what we learned from the presenters.
Jonathan Allen gave a presentation on venomous snakebite management. Here are some facts to remember:
Snakebite Statistics
Approximately 15 percent of the 3,000 snake species worldwide are dangerous to humans. There are annually 400,000 to 2,000,000 envenomations from snakebite worldwide, with 20,000 to 100,000 deaths. In the U.S., there is at least one species of venomous snake in every state except Alaska, Maine, and Hawaii. There are approximately 20 venomous species, including pit vipers and coral snakes, and an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 venomous snakebites each year, including six to 10 deaths. Perhaps only 20 percent of bites are reported.
Deaths from snakebites typically Read more »
This post, What You Need To Know About Snakebites, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
