AMSON VACCINES & PHARMA (PVT) LTD. launches World’s First Neurotoxic Snakebite Kit

On the 3rd.  March 2008 in Islamabad, AMSON Vaccines and Pharma Pvt (Ltd) announced the launch of the world’s first Neurotoxic Snakebite Management Kit for doctors in developing nations.

Neurotoxic snakes such as the black mamba and Egyptian cobra in Africa, the cobra and krait in Pakistan and other Asian countries and the Taipan in Papua New Guinea present major challenges to doctors in rural areas. Their venom is fast acting and paralyses the respiratory system such that victims stop breathing and die of suffocation. The speed of action of the venom results in many doctors not being confident to treat such bites and with a lack of specialist knowledge and training; most victims are referred to hospitals with mechanical ventilators. This journey wastes precious time and many victims die during the journey as the victim has no anti venom to rapidly neutralize the venom and no airway equipment to ensure they keep breathing during the journey.

Most of the medical textbooks provide little practical guidance on how to manage bites from these species in a rural environment and many health administrators are unaware of the drug and equipment profile needed to manage these bites.

AMSON, working with Ian Simpson an international snakebite expert and Snakebite Adviser to the Pakistan Medical Research Council and Dr Naeem Quraishi from Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro have developed a complete kit for managing neurotoxic snakebite in rural areas. This kit will directly support the new protocol released by the Health Department on 27th February 2008.

The kit contains anti snake venom (ASV) and the drugs necessary for handling any adverse reactions caused by the ASV. In addition, key drugs such as neostigmine and pain management are included. The kit also contains resuscitation equipment as well as tubes which can be used to improvise airway support in a conscious patient as well as specialist laryngeal tubes which give excellent support to an unconscious patient. The kit is designed to be portable and easily carried to the bedside and contains a simple guide to treatment and use of the kit.

Doctors in even the most basic health facilities will thus be able to assess a patient and determine if ASV is required, they will then have ASV if required, be able to deal with any adverse reactions, administer drugs such as neostigmine and also provide airway support for any referral. For the first time doctors will have all the necessary drugs and equipment to manage neurotoxic snakebite with confidence in all environments.

The airway portion of the kit contains equipment available in Pakistan which has not been widely made available to doctors yet but will provide invaluable support to emergency care of conditions such as poisoning and pneumonia. The kit will thus assist the effort to improve general emergency care in almost all the cases requiring mechanical ventilation.

The contents of the kit will also provide information for health administrators in understanding how to equip health facilities to manage neurotoxic snakebite, and therefore avoiding many easily preventable deaths.

Mr Shamim Ahmad Khan, Chairman of AMSON said “We are taking snakebite as a corporate priority and social responsibility programme. We are going to donate kits to high risk areas in Pakistan with a neurotoxic snakebite problem and we are intending to donate kits to the many developing nations with similar problems”.

Pakistan is keen to make such innovations available to other countries as part of their countrywide initiative to improve treatment and reduce mortality from this condition which affects mainly the rural poor.

Doctors who deal with neurotoxic bites should contact Dr. Amir Mahmood, AMSON on the following number to obtain details of how to obtain kits.
92 51 558 1067 Ext 118
92 51 556 2574 (Direct line)
amir@amson.org.pk