Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Antivenom Drug Helps Kids with Scorpion Stings
A recent article in The New York Times said that a new study proves that an experimental drug may help children recover from scorpion stings.
According to The Times, the drug is called Anascorp and is a scorpion antivenom made in Mexico, but it is not approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine studied young children stung by bark scorpions and found that those given the antivenom recovered within two hours, while children given the placebo suffered from the sting symptoms for four hours or more and required heavy sedation and hospitalization, said the article.
Details of the study
In the study, children from 6 months to 18 years of age who were admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit in Tucson after being stung by scorpions were randomly assigned to either receive Anascorp or a placebo and of those eight received the antivenom, and seven received a placebo. None of the children who received the drug had detectable levels of scorpion venom in their blood an hour after infusion.
Dr. Leslie V. Boyer, director of a venom research institute at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, was principal investigator of the new study. In the Times, he said this antivenom will help the more than 8,000 Arizona residents who are stung by poisonous scorpions each year. The adults usually recover without medical attention, but each year about 200 young children suffer severe symptoms, including having trouble breathing and Dr. Boyer said this antivenom will especially help those children living in rural areas and small towns where there are no pediatric intensive care facilities.
Scorpion stings are a real problem
The antivenom used in this study is commercially available in Mexico but is available only on an investigational basis in the U.S, but this antivenom gives doctors an alternative treatment to offer when dealing with this unusual problem.
Stings from scorpions in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico are a real problem. These stings can produce a neuromotor syndrome that, in its severe form, is characterized by uncoordinated hyperactivity with thrashing limbs, oculomotor and visual abnormalities, and respiratory compromise, according to Journal Watch Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
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