Supplies of snake anti-venom in jeopardy says BBC

[Noelle7206]

Snakebite antidote is running out - BBC News

[TammyJam]

Re: Supplies of snake anti-venom in jeopardy says BBC

Saw this report this morning too. It's a very good story. I think what those on the ground there need to do is make sure they have a vital education programme that illustrates how very important it is for the particular snake to be identified as the envenomator. If that's a word. They need to do it in the schools in a way that children will be interested and remember.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Supplies of snake anti-venom in jeopardy says BBC

... how very important it is for the particular snake to be identified as the envenomator....

I agree...but unfortunately most bites occur in brush or farm fields and the snake isn't seen, or only seen very briefly. I remember watching a PBS program about cobras and the people that had to work in the rice fields
or sugar cane (-a virtual jungle), never sure where the next snake might be lurking. Add to that the difficulty of identifying the snake (accurately) while in a state of panic, & knowing medical care is far away, at best?

It's easy for us, in the U.S., to say don't panic & pay attention if you get bit...after all, rare is the citizen who knows anyone ever killed by a snake bite here. But in places like Africa, Asia or Australia, so many more
snakes are dangerously venomous, and most everyone has lost a loved one to such a bite...well, I can just imagine how hard that would be to stay calm & observant, much less to feel kindly toward snakes.

[TammyJam]

Re: Supplies of snake anti-venom in jeopardy says BBC

It is understood, of course, why trying to teach a particular behaviour or course of action in certain circumstances may be considered pretty much useless. Yet there is a method, and a better method, and an even better method if we take the time and trouble to find it and keep applying it.

Here in Jamaica in the Caribbean, for years people in the bush have been encountering and chopping to death our unique and critically endangered Jamaican boa ("Yellow Snake"). We do have an education programme ongoing to try to teach people about them and that they are in fact harmless. Recently for the first time ever in my knowledge, a large one was found, photographed with much laughter, passed around, admired and......released unharmed.

So, sometimes, there's a winner! And the same applies to anywhere and anything, with anyone.