Fighting for survival of the bitten Penny Fannin . Then his back started aching, he developed a fever and started to lose consciousness. Jackson had been swimming off Rosemary Island in the Dampier Archipelago, about 20 kilometres off the Western Australian coast, and vaguely remembered something swimming in the water. He had in fact been bitten by a sea snake. A couple of hours later Jackson was recovering in a Karratha hospital after sea snake anti-venom had been administered.
Stone fish anti-venom is the most widely used internationally.
All these anti-venoms are produced by CSL, the former Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. Dr Winkel said he has been told by State Government advisers the unit's funding should be the responsibility of the Federal Government. When Professor Sutherland left CSL he had been working on a purified ant venom for treating people who have allergic reactions to these insects. The project was abandoned when he left. To prevent allergic deaths purified venoms are used in small amounts to build up people's immunities to these insect bites, a process called immunotherapy.