You are bitten by a venomous snake at a nature center. A snake handler is also b

Question

You are bitten by a venomous snake at a nature center. A snake handler is also bitten. You are rushed to the emergency room and given an antiserum. The snake handler does not receive treatment because he said he was exposed to venom so many times that he is immune. What is antiserum and will you have long-lasting immunity to snake venom after this? Is what the snake handler said possible or should he also receive treatment? If he does not receive treatment and is not affected, what is protecting him?

Explanation / Answer

The principle of antivenom is based on that of vaccines, developed by Edward Jenner; however, instead of inducing immunity in the patient directly, it is induced in a host animal and the hyper immunized serum is transfused into the patient.

Antivenoms can be classified into monovalent (when they are effective against a single species' venom) or polyvalent (when they are effective against a range of species, or several different species at the same time).

Antivenoms bind to and neutralize the venom, halting further damage, but do not reverse damage already done. Thus, they should be administered as soon as possible after the venom has been injected, but are of some benefit as long as venom is present in the body. Since the advent of antivenoms, some bites which were previously invariably fatal have become only rarely fatal provided that the antivenom is administered soon enough.

Snake handler is exposed to venom several times. When small doses of venom or diluted venom proteins is injected under the skin, overtime, good antibodies are produced through each time that bind to the venom and neutralize it so the person don't die. The treatment also is sometimes called venom immunotherapy (VIT).

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