Filenews 1 July 2023
The latest viper bite incident resulted in a four-year-old girl currently in ICU in Thessaloniki.
The little girl was bitten on the arm by a snake, possibly a viper, in a village of the Municipality of Rigas Feraios in Volos. The little girl was playing outside the village church, where she had gone with her grandmother, and among the pine needles she played, the snake was curled. The child's health condition deteriorated and so it was deemed necessary to transfer her to the ICU of a hospital in Thessaloniki.
It is also recalled the incident with the 43-year-old volunteer herpetologist who suffered anaphylactic shock after being bitten by a viper when she went to remove the snake from a school in Thessaloniki at the end of May. It is recalled that the woman, a few minutes after being bitten by the venomous snake, suffered anaphylactic shock and was immediately intubated by the rescuers of EKAV who arrived at the scene.
It is natural that this news gives rise to great concern about the potential danger we run in the event of a snake bite. The experts of Metropolitan Hospital inform us about what we can do in case of a snake bite as well as what we should avoid for our own good.
Snake bite: what to do and what not to do
Keep your cool. This can be helped by knowing that: vipers in Greece do not have such a strong poison that can kill a human in a very short time, and that their venom has cytolytic and not neurotoxic action like e.g. cobra venom. This means that there is time for transfer to a hospital (it takes 24 hours without hospitalization for someone to lose his life after a viper bite in Greece).
In addition, panic increases the likelihood of a wrong reaction that will aggravate the condition and heart rate, which in turn accelerates the circulation of poison, increases the rate of metabolism and the progression of symptoms.
Check the bite: the viper bite leaves a double wound with two "parallel" characteristic marks. However, this is more relevant to expert scientists and well-versed scientists, so even if you don't see the signs don't take any risks, follow the step-by-step process.
-Remove any object or clothing that could be in contact with the bite site as it swells (it will swell in any case).
-Keep the bitten limb as still as possible and lower than the height of the heart. Do not start running in search of help. Call for help and wait for it to arrive, or follow the instructions you will be given.
-Do not touch the site of the bite, cut or tear the skin around it, and do not attempt under any circumstances to suck the poison.
-Do not press on the bite site, do not put ice on the bite, do not tie the bitten limb, do not take (or give) painkillers − except for paracetamol, do not use alcohol.
Contact a hospital, having complied with all of the above. Keep in mind that these instructions are the same if your pet is the victim of the bite: you should try to follow them and take them to a veterinarian.
It's a good idea to remember that:
Snakes are active throughout the day. However, vipers do not "like" high temperatures (although in spring we may see them "sunbathing"), so in the summer months they are active at night. In case of encounter with humans, vipers, which are "slow-moving" snakes, remain motionless in order not to be noticed.
If they feel that they have been noticed, they will first try to move away as quickly as possible, in case they feel a threatening presence so close to them that they cannot leave, they hiss (produce a characteristic sound) loudly, curl up in a defensive position and prepare to bite.
Before summer, however, things are different: specifically in spring the vipers do not retreat / leave easily, they attack more easily if disturbed / scared and their venom is more toxic than other times of the year.
Also, remember that all snakes and of course vipers, despite the negative atmosphere that surrounds them and the phobias that concern them, are valuable for the balance of the ecosystems in which they participate and in their venom −note that non-venomous snakes also produce venom but in smaller quantities and cannot channel it with their bite − have substances that can be used by the pharmaceutical industry and become serums or drugs to save lives, many more than we fear they may remove or those they actually take (according to ELSTAT, from 2000 to 2014, 6 people died from a viper bite in Greece, also due to poor health).
