One vial does not fit all: experts query snakebite treatment

Recent deaths suggest common practice 'a failed strategy'
Lydia Hales
Tiger snake

Experts are questioning the safety of single-vial antivenom for snake bite, saying there is no consensus on the matter.

Each patient should be individually assessed and given “adequate antivenom in response to the envenoming severity and their individual clinical needs”, say clinical toxinologists and associate professors Julian White and Scott Weinstein, from the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, and researcher Peter Mirtschin.