Experts are reacting to a viral Facebook post promoting onions as a miracle cure for snakebites.
- Viral Post Claims Onion Is An Approved Snakebite Remedy Which Is False, Toxicologists Warn
- Anti-venom is the only effective treatment for serious snakebites, experts say
“The only effective treatment is antivenom” is the response of toxicologists contacted by AFP to a publication shared 18,000 times on Facebook since the end of April and which advises to consume three large onions in the event of a snakebite, to “vomit all the venom” spread in the body.
“SNAKE BITE REMEDY. Remedy tested and approved“, assures the author of this message widely relayed in French-speaking Africa since April 28, 2022.
No effect
Gold, “eating onions has no effect against snake venom“, explains to AFP Ashley Kemp, director at theAfrican Snakebite Institutea South African organization specializing in snakebite research.
She points out that “eating onions would most likely make a snakebite victim nauseous, which could instead lead to serious complications“.
This expert also warns that snake venom is complex in composition and varies from species to species. “There may even be variations in venom potency within the same species.”she says.
Snake venom is generally divided into three categories based on the toxins it contains: neurotoxic venom which affects the nervous system (mambas and several cobras, especially the Cape cobra); cytotoxic venom affects tissues and muscle cells (the Puff adder, Gaboon adder, and Mozambique spitting cobra) and hemotoxins (the boomslang and twig snake).
Major public health problem
This fake news has so many echoes because snakebites represent a major public health problem in Africa where the WHO estimates between 435,000 and 580,000 the number of bites requiring treatment per year.
Moreover, Africa does not currently have enough effective anti-venomsaffordable and in sufficient quantities to treat victims of poisonous snakes, regret the specialists and organizations working on the front line against the devastating effects of these bites.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that each year they are the cause of at least 81,000 to 138,000 deaths and approximately three times as many amputations and other permanent disabilities. Their damage in the body is considerable:
Snake venom can in particular “lead to paralysis that can block breathing; blood disorders leading to fatal bleeding; irreversible kidney failure and tissue damage likely to cause permanent disability and amputation of a limb”details the WHO.
Gestures that save
Hence the need to know the actions that save if the bite is serious: first immobilize the victim then take him to a medical center as soon as possible to be administered anti-venom or anti-venom serum, if necessary.
In a presentation on snakebite envenomationDr. Fabien Taieb, infectious disease specialist at the translational research center of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, advises to administer it “as quickly as possible” in the hospital andintravenously”.
According to Ashley Kemp, “few snakebite victims are treated with antivenom (less than 20% of people hospitalized after a snakebite). Most victims are not severely poisoned or the bite may have come from a snake that is not considered life-threatening or is not covered by the antivenom“, she indicates.
“The majority of snakes control their venom glands and are quite reluctant to waste their venom on humans. They very often give ‘dry’ bites without subsequent symptoms of envenomation or the snake may inject a little venom which will cause discomfort or some symptoms but nothing serious. These patients are usually hospitalized for a day, carefully monitored and then sent home.” explains the specialist.