As you all know, I love Tsavo East National Park. I stay there twice a year, ten days at a time. There are quite a few deadly snakes in the park. I've encountered two red spitting cobras, two black mambas, and a green mamba. Recently they have had a few puff adders also. The manager of the camp I stay in catches them and relocates them. When he is off, the men just kill them. Thus I know it is just a matter of time before someone gets tagged, an employee or a guest.
If someone were bitten at camp, and it was not a dry bite, they could well be dead by the time they got to help where antivenom was available. The nearest town with a clinic, a one hour drive, does not have antivenom on hand.
Thus I wrote Bio-Ken (James Ashe group) with the thought of purchasing a polyvalent antivenin to donate to camp. Ideally it should be administered by medical personnel IV. However, in an emergency it can be administered by nonmedical personnel intramuscularly. It might buy enough time for Flying Doctors to get to the patient, or for the patient to get to Mombasa/Watamu where antivenom was available. Bio-Ken does not have enough antivenom on hand to sell it. They are awaiting a supply for themselves from South Africa. They gave me the name of a doctor in Nairobi who might have some available, but I have gotten no response from him yet.
I contacted KWS suggesting it might be a good idea to have each park/reserve have a central area in the park with a supply of antivenom on hand so that should anyone in the park, ranger, employee of a camp or tourist, be bitten - they could be rushed to the central area with antivenom on hand. I heard from KWS but they did not address the antivenom matter, though I did volunteer to donate to institute this practice.
If one obtains a serious bite, the main concern is the lungs shutting down with the patient unable to breathe. Therefore, in the meantime, I am looking into purchasing Ambu bags to take with me next time so that if someone is bitten and has beathing difficulties, someone could assist by using the Ambu bag until the patient could get to medical personnel.
Thus it behooves everyone going on safari, those doing bush walks, etc. to be extremely careful. Knowing the antivenom for African snakes is in short supply, and that very few doctors-clinics have taken any courses in administering it, it means we all need to be especially careful while in the bush.
