Antivenin Stocks Depleted

Just in time for snake season, a widespread shortage of antivenin has become so critical in the Inland Empire that health officials said Friday that they do not have enough of the antidote left to treat even a single snakebite.

For a year, health officials across California have warned that supplies of antivenin used to treat the bites of rattlesnakes and other serpents are running low. The problem has been particularly pressing in Southern California--which contains more snakes with more venom than any other region of the state.

Now, officials in the Inland Empire have concluded that supplies of antivenin are effectively gone--that they do not have enough to treat a single victim. More than two dozen people in the region are hospitalized annually after being bitten by snakes, mostly rattlesnakes.

“The season is cranking up now as it gets warmer and warmer,” said Dr. Stuart Heard, executive director of the San Francisco-based California Poison Control System. “People need to take responsibility to protect themselves. They need to avoid getting bitten. This is real.”

Worse, perhaps, is that health officials say this is the beginning of a trend that will soon spread throughout Southern California and the West.

While it appears that no other area in California is suffering from as severe a shortage as the Inland Empire, Heard said he expects that other areas will be in similar straits by the summer’s end.

“It is headed in that direction,” he said. “The stocks are really low.”