Carpet Viper Antivenom

Here are some interesting to know facts about the various species of this viper family.

Carpet viper antivenom.

The west african carpet viper s venom is potently cytotoxic causing severe pain swelling blistering and in many cases severe tissue damage. In the local tangale language it is called. Failure of antivenom treatment author links open overlay panel adrian gillissen 1 r david g. Antivenom carpet viper foetal loss maternal mobidity nomads pregnancy introduction snakebite is a major medical problem among rural communities of the savanna region of west africa notably in benin burkina faso cameroon ghana nigeria and togo warrell arnett 1976.

Its coils bear the brown diamond hued pattern reminiscent of a 1970s floor covering that gives the carpet or saw scaled viper its name. The west african carpet viper is nocturnal and grows on average to a. Theakston 2 jürgen barth 1 burkard may 3 michael krieg 4 david a. Monovalent antivenom is effective and should be administered.

Saw scaled vipers or carpet vipers belonging to the echis genus inhabit countries of west asia indian subcontinent and north africa. She is looking after 25 year old michel who was bitten by a carpet viper five days ago while harvesting yams. Staff training access to an appropriate antivenom use of a treatment protocol and monitoring compliance reduced mortality from carpet viper envenoming substantially from 11 1 to 1 3 a reduction of 90 in northern ghana. They have a characteristic threat display rubbing sections of their body together to produce a sizzling warning sound 3 the name echis is the latin transliteration of.

Antivenom after carpet viper bite. Previous reports sug gested that miscarriage tended to be more common during the first trimester but our cases and several others confirm that it can occur at other times during pregnancy.