A child was bitten by a viper: what to do, how to provide first aid if bitten by a poisonous snake? The most dangerous zootoxins for humans: viper venom How many people stay in the hospital after a viper bite.

Bites from vipers and other poisonous snakes pose a threat to a child's life. Parents who take their children on a picnic often have no idea what to do or how to help their child if he is bitten by a snake. Timely provision of first aid can save the health and life of the baby.

Why are bites from vipers and other poisonous snakes dangerous?

When going outdoors with your child, study the main types of snakes that live in your area. Vipers and other venomous snakes are distinguished by vertical pupils (the so-called cat's eye). They are usually dark in color. IN mating season(in spring) they become very aggressive, and their poison is more toxic.

If a baby is attacked by a non-venomous snake, the child may experience classic symptoms of intoxication - nausea, vomiting, weakness, dizziness. The body's reaction to a bite poisonous snake depends on the type of poison she released. There are two main types:

• paralyzing – stops neuromuscular transmission, leading to paralysis and death of the victim;
• hemovasotoxic - disrupts the normal functioning of blood vessels, causing their spasm, increasing permeability and leading to edema.

Bite symptoms

If a child is bitten by a viper or other poisonous snake, a parent or any other adult should immediately call an ambulance, examine the wound and provide first aid.

A poisonous snake bite is accompanied by the following symptoms:

• the appearance of two round dots at the site of the bite - marks from the puncture of poisonous teeth;
• burning, swelling, redness, pain in the wound;
• development of intoxication syndrome after 20–40 minutes: nausea, vomiting, dizziness, increased body temperature.

First aid for a bite

When bitten by a viper or other snake decisive role plays the role of providing assistance as quickly as possible. Before medical personnel arrive, the following steps must be completed:

1. Calm the child. After a bite, the poison enters the bloodstream, physical activity and strong feelings will increase blood circulation, accelerating the spread of the dangerous substance throughout the body. The baby needs to be seated or laid down and nervous tension relieved.
2. Remove poison. During the first minutes after the bite, it is necessary to pump out the venom from the puncture points by squeezing or sucking it out of the wound. If there is damage in the oral cavity or the teeth are affected by caries, you should not suck out the poison.
3. Treat the wound. The damaged area can be washed with soapy water, treated with alcohol or brilliant green, and a loose bandage applied, preferably sterile.
4. Immobilize limbs. As a rule, snakes bite in the arm or leg. The bitten limb should be secured with a bandage that would prevent movement.
5. Drink regularly. To quickly remove the poison from the body, it is necessary to provide the baby with plenty of fluids.

What should you absolutely not do if you are bitten by a snake?

Parents often make serious mistakes when trying to provide first aid to a child who has been bitten by a snake. The most common ones include:

• applying a strong tourniquet at or above the bite site causes necrosis and tissue death and can lead to amputation;
• cauterizing a wound with hot coal or metal adds pain and anxiety to the baby without any benefit, since snake venom is not destroyed by high temperatures;
• cutting the bite site increases the likelihood painful shock and additional infection of the wound.

Precautionary measures

Before going into the forest with a child, you need to think through everything carefully in order to eliminate the threat of a bite: pick up the right clothes and shoes, explore the area, and also provide instructions on what to do if you come into contact with a viper.

Preparation for outdoor recreation with your baby should include the following points:

The article was prepared with the information support of the tourism and survival portal wildlife pohod-lifehack.ru.

The viper is a member of the family of poisonous snakes. You don’t have to go far to expose yourself to the danger of being attacked by this snake - the viper can be found in some regions of Russia in the forest or in clearings. To prevent unpleasant consequences from meeting one, you need to know how first aid is provided for a viper bite.

The viper lives in the south of the European part of Russia. The snake can be identified by the dark zigzag stripe located on its back. The color of the upper body varies from gray-blue to almost black. The length of the snake ranges from 35 to 75 cm. The head is almost flat, wider than the body. Characteristic sign This poisonous snake has red eyes.

Viper venom causes a hemolytic effect, i.e. destroys blood cells. Various enzymes contained in the poison destroy connective tissue, break down red blood cells, leading to inflammatory processes and an allergic reaction. The toxic effect of the venom causes tissue necrosis at the site of the bite. Viper venom spreads through the lymphatic flow and is eliminated through gastrointestinal tract, kidneys. If you do not provide first aid for a viper bite within 35-40 minutes, the victim may die due to general poisoning of the body, acute renal failure and numerous internal bleedings.

Symptoms after a viper bite

As a rule, poisonous snakes rarely purposefully attack a person; they will not bite first for no apparent reason. They usually do this out of self-preservation and self-defense. Poisonous snake bites have a number of unpleasant consequences:

• Snake venom quickly penetrates the body through the blood, affecting within 15-20 minutes nerve cells.
• The walls of the blood vessels become thinner, which leads to hemorrhages, gradual tissue necrosis, and blood clotting at the site of the bite.
• After being bitten by a common viper, marks remain in this place in the form of two points with a strong painful reaction.
• Local reaction: redness, increased body temperature at the location of the bite, tissue swelling quickly begins to spread upward from the bitten area. The area of ​​edema becomes numb, acquires a bluish tint, with blue-black spots - if necrosis begins.
• Immediately or after a few minutes, the body’s general reaction to the poison begins to develop: headache, dizziness, lethargy, nausea, and sometimes vomiting. Breathing becomes difficult, heart rhythm is disturbed. There may be some confusion.
• Visual acuity may decrease, and if an allergic reaction occurs, swelling of the larynx is possible, and, as a result, suffocation.

Symptoms develop stronger and much faster in people with weakened bodies, for example, in the elderly and people with any chronic diseases. Children may also have a stronger reaction than a healthy adult.

First aid for a viper bite

Most often, a snake bites a person on a limb - an arm or leg. Less often - in the head and neck area, but then the body’s reaction turns out to be much worse.

When bitten by a common viper, the first steps to take are:

1. To calm the victim, you can use special sedatives for this.
2. The victim must take a horizontal position - thus, the poison will spread through the lymph flow more slowly.
3. Remove all jewelry and watches from your hand, since after a bite swelling immediately begins to develop, after which it will no longer be possible to remove bracelets and rings.
4. Place the bitten limb higher than the body to slow down the flow of blood to it, which will increase pain and swelling. It needs to be well fixed and immobilized by applying a bandage, as in the case of a fracture.
5. Within the first ten minutes after a viper bite, you should begin to suck out the poison from the wound. If the actions are effective, you can get rid of 50% total number poison that has entered the body. First, the area around the wounds is lightly kneaded with your fingers, then you need to grab the wound with your teeth and begin to actively suck out the poison, strongly massaging the area around it. The procedure should take no more than 20 minutes. Poison in saliva should be spat out immediately. During the procedure, the tongue may become numb, but do not be afraid of this - this is a temporary phenomenon. After completing the procedure, you should rinse your mouth with alcohol.
6. The open wound is disinfected. Do not use alcohol - only hydrogen peroxide, chlorhexidine or regular brilliant green.
7. A loose bandage made of a sterile bandage, gauze or other clean material is applied to the area where the bite occurred.
8. Cold is applied to the wound; ice is the best option. To avoid frostbite of the tissues, every 5-7 minutes the ice should be removed for 5 minutes, then reapplied.
9. The victim is given antihistamines, any that are on hand. It is better if they are used as injections.
10. The victim must take large amounts warm water– this will allow you to remove the remaining poison from the body as quickly as possible. The volume of drinking should be at least 5 liters per day.
11. A person should take vitamins K and C, and if possible, he should be given a glucose drip. Since this option in nature is not always appropriate, you can limit yourself to taking glucocorticosteroid drugs - Prednisolone or Dexamethasone.

If after the bites there is a disturbance in the heart rhythm or respiratory failure develops, the victim should be administered Caffeine, Ephedrine or Cordiamine. If cardiac arrest occurs, he is given chest compressions and artificial respiration.

After everything necessary measures first aid instructions have been accepted, the patient should be transported from the forest to the nearest department as quickly as possible to provide qualified assistance. Under the supervision of doctors, the victim is given an antidote serum and an IV is installed.

Viper bite: what measures should not be taken?

Trying to save a loved one, some take measures that are even more capable of harming the person who finds himself in such a situation. Therefore, in no case should first aid for a snake bite contain the following actions:

1. When bitten, do not apply a tourniquet, which will cause even greater tissue necrosis.
2. Do not cauterize the wound with alcohol, fire, or other radical means.
3. You cannot cut the wound, hoping that this way you can remove the poison out. This useless action can introduce additional infection into an open wound.

In order not to expose yourself to the danger of poisoning by viper venom in the event of an attack, when going on a hike, you should study the possible risks of meeting these snakes, equip your first aid kit with an antidote, and also get all necessary information about what to do if bitten by a viper. When meeting with a viper, you should not provoke it into active actions, touch it, or step on it with your feet shod in ordinary shoes. To remove a snake from the road, you need to take a long stick and carefully move it away without making sudden movements. It’s even better to freeze in place, giving way to the viper.

Vipers are a family of venomous snakes. You can meet them almost everywhere except Australia, the islands of Oceania, New Guinea and Madagascar. In the fauna of countries former USSR There are about 9 species of true vipers, not to mention copperheads and giant vipers.

Common vipers in black and normal colors

All vipers have two relatively long fangs, hollow inside, through which venom comes from the poisonous glands located behind the upper jaw. Each canine is placed on a maxillary bone that rotates back and forth. Most time, the fangs are folded back and covered with a film shell. The fangs can rotate autonomously from each other. When attacked, the viper opens its mouth at an angle of up to 180 degrees and protrudes its fangs on a bone rotating forward. Upon contact, the jaws close and the strong muscles that surround the venom glands contract, stimulating the release of venom. All this happens so quickly, almost instantly, that it is more of a blow than a bite. Vipers act in a similar way both to immobilize the victim and for self-defense.

How to protect yourself from a viper bite

In most cases, you can protect yourself from the bite of a viper or any other snake by following basic rules behavior in potentially dangerous places:

1. Unless you are a specialist snake catcher and don't understand the types of snakes, it is best not to touch them or allow children to play with them.

2. In areas where snakes live, give preference to durable high shoes.

3. Stay vigilant in thick grass and overgrown holes. Before you set foot there, check for vipers lurking there.

4. Never chase a snake.

5. When picking mushrooms or berries, feel the grass around them with a stick. This will allow the viper to crawl away and at least detect itself by hissing

6. If you see a snake crawling, do not move until it crawls away.

7. If the snake has taken a threatening pose, slowly step back without making any sudden movements. Do not put your hands forward in defense. Do not turn your back to the snake. If you have a stick, hold it in front of you towards the snake. Do not run from a snake you encounter; you may step on another one that was previously unnoticed.

8. Use a flashlight at night, as some snakes are especially active on warm summer nights.

9. Promptly destroy rodents in your homes, outbuildings, and garden plots, since mice and rats are very attractive to snakes.

10. If you live in areas where poisonous snakes live, as a preventive measure, coat the threshold of your house with mustard every day. Snakes are very sensitive to it and, as a rule, do not crawl over objects treated with it.

11. Do not spend the night near trees with hollows, near rotten stumps, caves, or garbage heaps. In steppe conditions, carefully inspect your bed or sleeping bag before going to bed. If you see a snake in your bed in the morning, do not panic, do not make sudden movements that could provoke its attack. It’s better to call for help and wait for the snake to crawl away on its own. With some skill, you can try with a sudden sharp movement to throw off a snake that is on a blanket or sleeping bag, without forgetting about the neighbors in the tent.

What are the consequences of a viper bite?

Bites of common and steppe vipers, which are most common in middle lane, are accompanied by a certain danger to human health. However, death is recorded in less than 1% of cases and, as a rule, in childhood with untimely treatment. The closer it is to the head, the greater the danger of a bite. In addition, the toxicity of the poison increases with the onset of spring and decreases in summer.

Often the bite falls on a limb. At the bitten site there are two punctate wounds from poisonous snake fangs. After a bite, severe, increasing pain immediately appears. Neurotropic cytotoxins in viper venom affect nerve cells. Other substances lead to a range of blood clotting disorders and tissue death.

With a local reaction, in the very first minutes after the bite, redness and heat are observed in the bitten part of the body, and swelling develops upward from the bite site.

After 15-20 minutes, and sometimes immediately, signs of a general reaction appear:

• headache,
• dizziness,
• lethargy,
• nausea,
• in some cases vomiting,
• labored breathing,
• heart rhythm disturbances.

As a rule, a viper bite is not accompanied by clouding of consciousness. However, the bitten person may still have a sluggish, “drunk” appearance.

Complications after a bite can last for weeks. In most cases, this is caused by improper self-medication methods.

What not to do if bitten by a viper

Firstly, you cannot cut the wound crosswise or completely cut out the affected area. Such cuts are fraught with infection, damage to veins and tendons.

Secondly, you should not cauterize the bitten area with objects heated on fire, coals, or gunpowder. The length of snake fangs reaches a centimeter, which helps the venom penetrate deep into the muscle tissue.

Thirdly, you should not cauterize the bite site with caustic potassium, nitric, sulfuric and carbolic acids or kerosene.

Fifthly, it is forbidden to apply a tourniquet above the bitten area, as this can worsen the victim’s condition, develop gangrenous phenomena and increase the risk of death. The tourniquet leads to stagnation of blood and even tissue necrosis, but it does not affect the spread of poison.

Sixthly, injecting medicine into the wound is not allowed.

And finally, seventhly, you should not drink alcohol, since, contrary to popular belief, it is not only not an antidote, but, on the contrary, enhances the effect of the poison and complicates its removal from the body.

What can you do if you are bitten by a viper?

If you are bitten by a viper, you should immediately seek medical help. On the way to a medical facility, it is very important to keep the bitten part of the body motionless. The limb can be fixed using an ordinary scarf or sticks.

If hope for medical care not in the near future, then:

1. Move the victim to a comfortable and protected place. Place him so that his head is lower than his body, which will reduce the severity of possible cerebrovascular accidents. Provide the victim with complete peace.

2. Using pressure movements, open the wound and begin to actively suck out the poison with your mouth, massaging the bite area towards the wounds. Intensive suction during the first 5-7 minutes allows you to remove up to 40% of the poison, while after 15-30 minutes this figure decreases to 10%. If a hand is bitten, the victim himself can suck out the poison.

When sucking, you should periodically spit out the bloody liquid, and at the end of the procedure, you should rinse your mouth with potassium permanganate or plain water. It should be noted that if there are wounds in oral cavity or dental caries, it is strictly forbidden to suck out the poison with your mouth.

3. When the first signs of swelling appear, stop suction and treat the bitten area with antiseptics. The use of brilliant green is not recommended, as it will make it more difficult for the doctor to examine the wound.

4. Apply a sterile bandage to the damaged area, loosen it as swelling develops to avoid it cutting into the soft tissue.

5. To slow down the spread of poison in the body, minimize the mobility of the affected part of the body. If your hand is bitten, bend it and fix it in this position. You can apply a splint.

6. To normalize the water-salt balance and remove poison from the body, provide the victim with plenty of fluids. Give him plenty of strong tea, broth or water.

7. If possible, give the victim 2-3 tablets of an antihistamine.

8. Do everything in your power to get the viper bite victim to the nearest medical facility as quickly as possible. With absence Vehicle transport the victim on a stretcher.

Many people consider the introduction of a special serum to be a panacea for a viper bite. You can buy it at a pharmacy before traveling out of town. However, doctors do not recommend doing this, since this drug requires special conditions storage, and its shelf life is very limited. In addition, in most cases you can get by with more gentle means.

• Vipers behave most aggressively in the spring and early summer months.
• Vipers are poisonous immediately after birth.
• Viper bites do not always lead to poisoning. In about 25% of cases they do not release venom when attacked.

Vipers are the most common group of venomous snakes in Europe and Russia. These are small reptiles, in rare cases exceeding half a meter in size.

The animals are non-aggressive, active during warm periods, and, if possible, avoid the presence of humans. They often settle in or near outbuildings, but only if there are places of shelter and food (usually mice).

In the article, the reader will learn how dangerous a viper bite can be. different types, and will also be able to get acquainted with the first aid algorithm.

Vipers are a fairly common group of poisonous reptiles, which includes 68 species. Animals are quite ecoplastic, which has led to the formation of a variety of morphs.

For example, the African Gaboon viper (cassava) can be almost two meters long, while the usual steppe individual found in our latitudes is no more than half a meter.

Interesting. The deadly poisonous cassava snake has a very peaceful disposition; despite its protective capabilities, it extremely rarely responds to an external stimulus. African reptile catchers calmly take her by the head and tail as she motionlessly waits for her prey for hours and even days. However, rare cases of aggression do occur, and if a person is not given an antidote in a timely manner, death is inevitable.

Females are always larger than males. Average weight snakes living in our regions range from 50 to 200 grams. It is characteristic of all species that their head is triangular in shape, always flattened, and separated from the body by a short narrowing in the neck area.

The eyes are small, always with vertical (cat-like) pupils. Snakes never blink; there are convex scales above their eyes, which give the animals a terrifying look.

The jaws are quite powerful and mobile, the two front teeth are large, they have grooves through which poison is injected into the body of the victim. Coloring can be varied, often depending on the habitat, so snakes blend in with environment and without movement they are quite difficult to notice right away.

These animals are described in more detail in the video in this article. Vipers adapt very well to different environmental conditions, therefore widely distributed throughout the world.

Most prefer:

• forested areas;
• planting;
• gully ecosystems;
• mountains;
• overgrown banks, marshy ecotopes, (but they don’t like open water with a strong current).
• fields and open areas (inhabited by common and steppe species).

These snakes rarely move long distances and usually do not leave the two-hundred-meter zone. IN summer days they bask on stumps and open areas, exposing their bodies to the sun's rays.

Attention. The warmer the body temperature of a snake, heated by air or sun, the more dexterous and agile it is. In autumn and spring the animal is rather slow.

They hunt mainly at dusk and at night, but if they are hungry, they can crawl during the day in search of prey. The first table identifies common types of reptiles, indicating their distinctive features and places of residence.

Table 1. Types of vipers and their toxicity:

Important. All vipers living in our latitudes are characterized by melanism - a dark color that differs significantly from the characteristic coloring of snakes, so it is often difficult to determine the breed of vipers even for a specialist.

Why do snakes attack

Vipers are peaceful animals. On hot days they can be seen on stumps or open areas, but more often they sit under branches, stones, fallen trees and in secluded places.

Snakes are never the first to show aggression; as a rule, they hide using their coloring or crawl away. If there is no escape route (or so the reptile thinks), then the animal takes a protective pose in the form of a spiral, hisses and rhythmically inflates its body.

A bite occurs if:

• stepped on a viper;
• accidentally (with branches, foliage) or intentionally picked up;
• there was a provocation on the part of the person, for example, he came close, annoyed with a stick, or, as often happens in Lately, there was an attempt to take a photo with a mobile phone.

The note. Vipers behave cautiously because the production of poison requires spending quite a lot of internal reserves, which is problematic when constantly changing temperature regime. This explains the low aggressiveness of snakes.

All species living in our latitudes are poisonous, but not fatal to a healthy adult. Real danger lethal outcome exists for young children, elderly people and people severely weakened by severe chronic diseases.

Consequences of a viper bite

The venom of snakes is most toxic in the spring, when they wake up after hibernation. It blocks blood clotting, but is not enough to cause cardiac arrest.

The toxicity of snake protein introduced into the body depends on several factors:

• a person’s body weight, as well as his age;
• the size of the snake, the larger it is, the more dangerous substance will be injected into the wound;
• location of the wound - the closer to the head, the more dangerous; the situation is also extremely dangerous when the animal has bitten through large blood vessels;
• the poison is hemolytic, which means it does not spread as quickly as, for example, neurotoxins, so you can try to suck it out;
• the presence of allergies, cardiovascular pathologies and renal failure aggravates the well-being of the bitten person.

Important. A viper cannot bite in water because it needs support to do so, but this will certainly happen if it is picked up.

Clinical manifestations

Most people immediately after contact feel pain and burning, but often those bitten do not feel anything, which is due to the effect of the poison on the nerve endings. Two wounds from the front teeth remain on the body, which clearly verifies the poisonousness of the snake.

Symptoms after a bite:

• wounds hardly bleed due to rapid blood clotting;
• in the first minutes, swelling and hyperemia develop in the affected area, they quickly increase;
• most often pain and severe burning are felt;
• a person experiences panic and fear of possible death;
• characterized by weakness, nausea, dizziness;
• a severe degree of damage is indicated by shortness of breath, swelling of the neck, severe redness or cyanosis of the face, fainting, and convulsions.

Negative symptoms develop within an hour, and after another couple of hours the patient’s condition may worsen somewhat. Then everything stabilizes. If there are no signs, life-threatening and the health of the bitten person, then the introduction of an antidote will not be required.

Negative signs will completely disappear after 3-4 days. Nevertheless, no matter how healthy a person is, first aid is always required to reduce the negative consequences. detailed instructions is given below.

A person’s condition after poison enters the body will largely depend on the first aid that will be provided to him. The most important thing in this situation is not to panic and calmly follow the instructions below.

Unacceptable actions

It is important when providing first aid not to make mistakes that could aggravate the situation.

Please note the following points:

• The bitten person should not run, move or panic, stress will only increase the heart rate and the spread of toxins through the blood;
• alcohol does not relieve signs of intoxication, does not alleviate the condition and does not neutralize snake venom;
• applying a tourniquet above the bite site leads to tissue necrosis, this not only can cause amputation, but after removing the tourniquet it will increase poisoning of the body, since in addition to the protein components of the snake, tissue decay products will enter the bloodstream;
• cauterization of the wound is ineffective and will lead to additional trauma (burn), and an incision (as a rule, this is done to facilitate the sucking out of the poison) will only accelerate the spread of the toxin;
• It is not recommended to apply ice to large areas of the skin, which will slow down blood circulation and increase the local effect of the poison, but you can cool the wound itself.

What to do after a viper bite

Pay attention to the given algorithm right actions when bitten by a poisonous snake:

1. Sucking and squeezing out venom. It is extremely important to start doing this from the first seconds. This measure will be effective only in the first 10-15 minutes, provided that it is started immediately after contact with the snake. The wound should be crushed by grasping the skin (in the form of a fold) to open the punctures. Small droplets should appear on the surface. Then you should lightly clasp your teeth around the skin around the bite and continuously suck out the poison for about ten to fifteen minutes, periodically spitting out the ichor. In this way, about half of the toxic substances can be sucked out.

Important. If there are wounds in the mouth (even open ones), this cannot serve as an obstacle to sucking out the toxin. It gets there in a highly dissolved state, and its amount is so insignificant that it cannot cause any complications. The danger of snake venom getting on damaged mucous membranes during suction is significantly exaggerated.

1. Wound disinfection. After some of the harmful elements have been sucked out, marks from viper teeth on the body must be treated with an antiseptic (hydrogen peroxide, alcohol solutions, diluted potassium permanganate and others). It is not recommended to treat with iodine or brilliant green, since the doctor who subsequently examines the wound will experience certain difficulties. It is better to apply a bactericidal patch or wrap it loosely with a sterile bandage.
2. The victim needs rest. It is extremely important to completely immobilize the affected part of the body; if necessary, apply a splint. If the bite is on your hand, you need to remove jewelry from it (they may increase swelling). Remember, any movements accelerate the penetration of poison into the blood and lymph.
3. Wrap the bite area (not to be confused with applying a tourniquet). The bandage should be moderately tight, that is, it should not put too much pressure on the affected part of the body. You can check the density of the applied fabric like this: your middle finger should penetrate under the skin and bandage without much effort. This measure contributes to minor compression of blood and lymphatic vessels located in the surface layers, which makes migration difficult toxic substances, and does not interfere with normal hemocirculation.
4. Apply something cold, such as ice, to the wound, but not to the entire surface of the limb. Cool for no more than 10 minutes. This will reduce pain and slow down (for a while) the spread of the poison.
5. Drinking large amounts of water (up to 3–5 liters per day) will reduce intoxication, reduce the concentration of toxins and speed up their elimination. In this case, the principle is this: the more liquid, the better. Preference should be given to alkaline drinks (neutralize poison), this may be mineral water, for example, “Luzhanskaya”, “Polyana Kvasova”, or you can simply add 1-2 teaspoons of soda per liter of water.

Drug treatment for viper bites

After delivering the victim to the hospital, doctors determine the degree of intoxication by analyzing blood, urine, and a cardiogram; in case of serious clinical manifestations, more precise laboratory tests may be prescribed.

Important. It is advisable to identify the snake if possible, which is important to determine its toxicity. To do this, it is recommended to take a photograph of the animal or try to remember it, so that later you can identify it by its identification number or image.

The victim must clearly know how much time has passed since the injury. Anti-viper serum, obtained by injecting poison into the blood of horses, is used as an antidote.

However, she has very short term validity, and the price is quite high. If a person’s life is not in danger, he is conscious, his condition is satisfactory and stable, then the antidote should not be administered, since it is a foreign protein for the body, which can lead to an additional allergic reaction and worsening of the condition. Doctors are able to reduce the negative consequences after a viper bite without using an antidote, using medicines, listed in table 2.

Table 2. Drug treatment after a viper bite:

When meeting a person or livestock, poisonous snakes usually hiss and try to crawl away; They do not attack themselves, but defend themselves fiercely if they are stepped on or disturbed too closely. Most often they bite a person on the legs, less often on the arms; in livestock, the legs or end of the snout are usually affected.

The site of a viper bite quickly swells and turns red, a person feels unbearable pain in it, the swelling gradually spreads along the bitten leg or arm and sometimes spreads to the body. The bitten area may die and form an ulcer.

A person bitten by a viper is drowsy or even faint, or, conversely, in a state of excitement; There is often nausea and vomiting, pain in the pit of the stomach and cramps. The heart beats more often, but weaker, there is shortness of breath, the body becomes cold, and blood appears in the urine. Death occurs from respiratory arrest within 12 hours to 8 days from the moment of the bite.

If the poisoning is not fatal, the heart function improves, the body warms up, the swelling subsides, but for a long time, more than two months, the patient feels weak. In this case, there may be a return of the disease, since poisoning can sometimes turn into chronic form. There are, but rarely, cases when an omission by a viper even causes blindness.

The effect of cobra venom on humans is different. There is almost no swelling at the site of the bite and there is almost no pain, but the bitten person feels tired, loses consciousness, breathing and heart function become difficult, and death may occur 2-7 hours after the bite, or a quick recovery occurs in 1-2 days.

Snake venom penetrates into the milk of bitten nursing women. There was a case when a mother’s child died after being bitten by a cobra because she continued to breastfeed him.

The bite of poisonous snakes affects animals in a similar way. However, snake venom is not at all equally strong against different animals. Cattle and horses more sensitive than humans to snake venom. Not only people die from the bites of the viper, but also much larger horses, camels and cattle. Bite steppe viper it is enough to kill a bull weighing 480 kg, while a person 8 times smaller in weight, bitten by this snake, recovers, and such a small animal as a hedgehog endures the bite of a viper, apparently without harm.

The strength of the poison also depends on the place where the snake bit, on the amount of poison injected and on the condition of the snake itself. If the snake accidentally managed to bite through a vein, that is, a vessel that conducts blood to the heart, the effect of the poison is enhanced and accelerated many times; such bites are especially dangerous. A large amount of venom injected by a snake, of course, acts stronger and faster than a smaller amount, although experiments on animals have proven that after a certain limit, increasing the amount of injected venom no longer accelerates the effect of the venom. The venom of snakes that have just moulted and are well-fed is stronger, which is why such snakes are more dangerous.

Snake venom is a thick, transparent liquid, slightly yellowish or greenish in color and has a bitter taste. It rots easily and loses its toxicity when heated.

Research by numerous scientists has proven that snake venom is very complex in composition. It contains a number of toxic substances that act on various parts of the body of a bitten person or animal, and the venom of some snakes, for example, vipers, contains predominantly some of these substances, and the venom of others, for example, cobras, contains other substances. This explains the difference in the effect of the venom of different snakes.

Viper venom acts mainly on the circulatory system. The main active principle in it is hemorrhage, a substance that causes hemorrhages. It also severely affects muscles and some other tissues of the body. A distinction is made between the local effect of this poison, at the site of the snake bite, and its general effect on the body.

Viper venom exerts a local effect by being absorbed from wounds into muscles, blood vessels and other body tissues. Intact skin does not absorb poison, so the snake must necessarily injure the skin of the affected animal. The layer of fat also greatly inhibits the spread of venom, so pigs with a thick subcutaneous layer of fat are well protected against snake bites. Getting into the muscles at the site of the bite, the poison corrodes them; the action of the poison also dissolves the walls of blood vessels, which results in hemorrhages. From snake venom The composition of the blood changes and leukocytes, or white blood cells, die. Leukocytes normally protect the body from the penetration of pathogenic microbes, but when exposed to poison, they cannot cope with this; therefore, at the site of the bite, microbes multiply with impunity, and the result is a difficult-to-heal ulcer or even gangrene (tissue decay).

Viper venom has a general effect on the body as it spreads throughout circulatory system, with blood flow. As already mentioned, cases where a snake has bitten a large vein are especially dangerous: instant poisoning occurs, the blood clots, and quick death can occur from blockage of the main blood vessels with a clot of clotted blood. The venom of vipers, spreading throughout the body, in addition to changing the composition of the blood, causes severe damage to the tissues of the liver, spleen and kidneys. The kidneys normally remove toxic substances that accumulate in the body into the urine; They also try to remove snake venom, but at the same time their tissues partially die, hemorrhages occur in them, which is why blood appears in the urine. If viper venom enters the digestive organs, severe inflammation with hemorrhages occurs, but the poison itself is destroyed by digestive juices and bile. The effect of viper venom on nervous system weak.

Cobra venom, on the other hand, acts almost exclusively on one nervous system; Therefore, the venom of this snake does not have a local effect. The main active principle of cobra venom is a neurotoxin; it affects the respiratory center, which is why suffocation occurs.

In case of fatal poisoning, the destruction caused by the venom of vipers, which has spread throughout the body, is so great that further work body becomes impossible. In case of non-fatal poisoning with this poison, the body little by little copes with the damage, the composition of the blood is restored, the poison is destroyed and excreted by the kidneys into the urine, the hemorrhages resolve, the wound at the site of the bite heals, and the body slowly returns to normal. However, the destruction caused by the poison in the tissues of many internal organs, continues to affect itself for a long time, which is what we see during the patient’s slow recovery.

Recovery from a cobra bite is much faster because if the body has withstood the action of the poison, it is easily removed by the kidneys, without causing destruction in the tissues and blood of a person or animal.

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