Snake experts battled to find snake antivenom for a man who was bitten by a Cape cobra in Noordhoek on Thursday afternoon.
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Speaking to the Daily Maverick, Steven Meighan from Deep South Reptile Rescue said he hadn’t been able to find any by 5pm.
‘I had to drive down to the Mugg & Bean and borrow their Wi-Fi because of loadshedding just to see if anybody I know had any left,’ he told the publication, adding that everyone had run out.
Snake Bite Assist’s Arno Naude said that there might be some vials left somewhere in the country, adding that a man in KwaZulu-Natal was in severe distress last week, after being bitten by a snouted cobra. Doctors could only treat him symptomatically as they could not find any snake antivenom to give him, but he survived after hours in excruciating pain.
Meanwhile, the National Health Laboratory Service’s (NHLS’s) Mzi Gcukumana said they had ‘increased snakebite antivenom production, resulting in a steady stabilisation of output’.
However, Daily Maverick reports that all requests for a list of facilities where this antivenom has been distributed have been ignored and that none of SA’s major snakebite experts, despite having paid for large orders, has received any.
‘We have made progress in producing and distributing larger quantities of snakebite antivenom to health and veterinary facilities across the country since last week,’ Gcukumana insisted, blaming loadshedding and malfunctioning machinery for the shortage.
‘We installed a backup power unit, as previously stated, to meet the energy demands of our manufacturing process. The NHLS management continues to monitor the situation and will take necessary steps depending on need.’
In an open letter to the minister of health last week, the National Snakebite Advisory Group appealed for intervention, funding and emergency upgrades of equipment and backup power supplies at the South African Vaccine Producers’ (SAVP) production plant.
‘The inability and lack of expected delivery of antivenom … poses a major health risk, despite the drug being an essential listed drug on the Essential Drug List. We … implore the minister to ensure that the procurement processes are effectively and compliantly performed so that … backup generators and uninterrupted power supplies are made available and to ensure that reagents and other essential production items are procured to assist to enhance production, and the release of batches are made available in sufficient volume to restock the country,’ read the letter.
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Picture: Gerrie Heyns / Cape Snake Conservation