Right now, the only therapy recommended for children bitten by scorpions is heavy sedation to get them through several hours of severe symptoms that include flailing arms and legs. But now a small study of an experimental Mexican drug indicates that a new treatment may be at hand.
The antivenom, known as Anascorp, cured most of the children involved in a small study within two hours. An hour after their infusion, none of the children had detectable levels of venom in their bloodstream.
"It was like a miracle," Dr. Moerdler-Green of St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx told the New York Times. "How many people go into the emergency room around the world and are able to get medication and be cured in the course of one hour?"
Thousands of adults are bitten by scorpions in the U.S. every year without suffering serious reactions. But doctors have to deal with a harsh response by children.
- read the report from the New York Times