{"id":29579,"date":"2025-01-22T02:52:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T21:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=29579"},"modified":"2025-04-09T09:11:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T03:41:55","slug":"antivenom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/antivenom\/","title":{"rendered":"Antivenom"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Antivenom:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Antivenoms, or antivenins, are life-saving medicines used to <strong>treat snake bites.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Antivenoms are the frontline defence. They work by specifically binding to the venom toxins to render them ineffective, allowing the body\u2019s natural defence systems to clear them safely over time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How lethal is Snake venom?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Snake venom is one of nature\u2019s most lethal weapons, a complex cocktail of toxic proteins.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Haemotoxins destroy blood cells<\/strong> and disrupt clotting. <strong>Neurotoxins<\/strong> block nerve signals and paralyse. <strong>Cytotoxinsdissolve tissue<\/strong> at the bite site. The effects are often fatal without medical intervention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Productions of Antivenoms<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>French physician <strong>Albert Calmette in<\/strong> the 1890s developed the first antivenom using horses, a practice that continues today.<\/li>\n<li>To produce antivenom, healthy and <strong>mature venomous snakes<\/strong> are first captured from the wild by trained experts who then \u201cmilk\u201d the snakes to extract the venom.<\/li>\n<li>Next, they immunise horses with increasing doses of venom over many weeks, allowing their immune systems to produce antibodies.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Over time, the horses develop a robust immune response, producing antibodies that neutralise venom toxins.<\/li>\n<li>They are produced by injecting small amounts of <strong>venom into animals, usually horses,<\/strong> which then produce antibodies as part of their immune response. These antibodies become antivenoms.<\/li>\n<li>The experts extract these antibodies from the horse\u2019s blood and purify and formulate them as antivenoms.<\/li>\n<li>The antibodies thus produced are very specific to the type of toxins injected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Polyvalent antivenoms<\/strong> (PVAs) currently used in India target multiple species. However, their efficacy varies against less common snakes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Issues with Antivenoms in India<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>India is the world\u2019s largest producer and consumer of antivenoms in the world.<\/li>\n<li>However, access to <strong>timely medical care remains a significant challenge<\/strong> for many Indians.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Administration issue: Improper administration<\/strong> and inadequate facilities exacerbate the crisis. <strong>Logistical issues<\/strong>, unequal access to care, <strong>superstitious beliefs, and cultural practices<\/strong> often delay proper treatment in many parts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lack of Infrastructure:<\/strong> Antivenoms often need to be transported in cold storage, however, India\u2019s rural parts lack the supporting infrastructure and power supply.<\/li>\n<li>The high cost of manufacturing antivenom limits accessibility for the economically-disadvantaged.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What are the three types of snake poison?<\/h3>\n<p>There are three types of venom according to its effect viz. Haemotoxic, Cytotoxic &amp; Neurotoxic. Haemo-toxic venoms are ones which affect the cardiovascular system, Cytotoxic venoms target specific cellular sites and Neuro-toxic venoms harm the nervous system of the human body.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/reader?utm_source=Hindu&amp;utm_medium=Menu&amp;utm_campaign=Header&amp;_gl=1*9st4zo*_gcl_au*MTQ2MTcyNjU3My4xNzMzMTk0MTg3Ljg2MTk5NjQ4NS4xNzM3MzkyNjE3LjE3MzczOTI2MTc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antivenom are life-saving medicines used to treat snake bites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}