Wednesday 5 November 2008

Something else I did not know!

whilst reading, watching nature documentaries and Venom ER I was always of the opinion that more Americans and Mexicans died from rattlesnake bites than scorpion stings, what do you think? well boy was I wrong! with a little research I came across this paper by David Cheng, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Associate Emergency Medicine Residency Director, Associate Medical Director of Emergency Services, University of Arkansas Medical Sciences,
to quote just a small part of it,"Scorpion stings are a major public health problem in many underdeveloped tropical countries. For every person killed by a poisonous snake, 10 are killed by a poisonous scorpion. In Mexico, 1000 deaths from scorpion stings occur per year. In the United States, only 4 deaths in 11 years have occurred as a result of scorpion stings."
1,000 deaths a year from scorpion stings, I would have thought there would have been more programs about scorpions than rattle snakes, but to put this in perspective in India Cobras and the Russel’s viper are responsible for the close to 20,000 yearly snake bite deaths in India.

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