The new antivenom will work on bites from poisonous rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins. The Food and Drug Administration approved CroFab late last year. The product is manufactured by Protherics Inc. and is being distributed by Savage Laboratories. So far, at least seven people nationwide have been treated with the new antivenom, including cases in Arizona and Louisiana, said Jackie Beltrani, product manager for CroFab. The Poteet boy has not shown any signs of an allergic reaction to either the new product or the old antivenom, which he initially received before doctors treated him with CroFab.
Several things can occur when someone is bitten by a venomous snake.
There can be pain, swelling, bleeding of the tissues, a drop in blood pressure and a loss in the blood's ability to clot. Antivenoms work by binding with the snake venom and essentially deactivating it, Dart said. Antivenoms are made by injecting small amounts of venom in a host animal, such as a sheep or horse, so the animal creates antibodies, he said. The animal's blood serum is then taken, purified and used for the antivenom. Exact statistics on snakebites are not available, but according to figures from the Annals of Emergency Medicine, a journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians, an estimated 8,000 people each year in the United States are bitten by venomous snakes.