São Paulo, September 12, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Powdered serum to combat animal poison, from such creatures as snakes, spiders, and scorpions, will be available in Brazil at the beginning of 2004. The Amazon region and parts of the Northeast will be the first to receive this substance, which is already used in other countries. For a long time health professionals have eagerly awaited access to the technology of leophilized serum, especially in places where there is no electricity. The liquid serum currently used requires refrigeration.
This announcement was one of the standouts at the National Meeting of Serum-Producing Laboratories and the Program to Control Accidents Resulting from Poisonous Animals, which ended on Wednesday (11) at the Butantã Institute in São Paulo. 30 thousand cases of poisonous animal bites are registered each year in Brazil, according to the director of the Vital Brazil Hospital (SP), Fan Hui Wen. This unit is specialized in this type of accident.
The physician pointed out that the country has technology that is quite advanced in this area, and Brazil is considered one of the world's pioneers in treating poisonous animal bites, beginning with the research done by a physician from Minas Gerais, Vital Brazil (1865-1950). Over a hundred years ago, Vital Brazil discovered the need to use serum produced from the poison of the animal itself to combat the effects of poisonous bites. The basic principles of today's serum are the same as they were then. The technique that is used involves innoculating horses with the poison, for their blood to produce antibodies which are extracted in their blood serum.
Since 1986, the Ministry of Health has been running a program to help the Brazilian population, especially when it comes to the distribution of serum. "The goal is not to reduce the number of accidents, but to reduce the lethality and gravity of the cases," said the coordinator of the National Program to Control Accidents Resulting from Poisonous Animals, Francisco Anilson. According to him, the government buys the entire production of the country's laboratories and distributes it for free to the states, which should transfer it to the municipalities. Anilson recalled that, nowadays, practically nobody dies for lack of serum, although coverage in the Amazon region is still incomplete.
The treatment of poisonous animal bites presents some difficulties that challenge specialists. Fan Hui Wen mentioned, for example, that the population has little information, and health professionals are not well informed about what procedures to adopt to treat animal bites. She cautioned against the danger of popular beliefs. "Frequently, people apply roots or coffee grounds on the bite, and they even bind and suck the area that has been affected in order to reduce the intensity of the poison. These measures, as well as being ineffective, can end up doing harm to the patient," she said. (DAS)
