MadSci Network: Zoology |
No, I'm afraid "drawing out the venom" doesn't work. Snake bites are one of those diseases for which we had no effective treatment for many years. As a result, and because snake bites go back to the beginning of humans, there have been hundreds of home remedies and folk treatments developed/tried. Added to this, snake bites tend to occur in the wilderness, far away from medical care, so the need for an effective first aid intervention is great. Unfortunately, when these folk remedies are tested scientifically, they just don't work. Some of them would seem to make sense, like sucking the venom out by various means. It turns out that the best thing you can do when bitten by a poisonous snake is get to a doctor. If there are signs of serious threat from the venom, and most of the time there isn't, we can give antivenin, which does help stop the tissue damage from the venom.
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