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For nearly 30 years, London-based reptile enthusiast and musician Steve Ludwin has been injecting snake venom—a practice that has almost killed him.
It may now help save thousands of lives, as researchers search for a new antidote based on his body's response to the toxic fluids.
"It sounds very crazy what I am doing but it turns out that it potentially has lots of health benefits," Ludwin, the tattooed 51-year-old told AFP in the living room of his home in the British capital.
Ludwin demonstrated his decades-old habit by firmly holding the head of a green Pope's tree viper—Trimeresurus popeiorum—and extracting a few drops of its venom.
Minutes later, he has injected the fluid into his arm using a syringe.
The scientists hope to produce cheaper anti-venom from the antibodies in his blood.
[Please note that this is very dangerous and Mr. Ludwin has almost died a number of times. Don't try this at home! - Ed]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 11 2017, @06:20PM (5 children)
Yeah, he's a fool allright:
Kids here, Boy Scouts or not, are taught at a younger age which snakes are venomous and how to recognize them. A scout in the boonies should have known better. Baby venomous snakes are even more dangerous than adults in the sense that they lack control over their evenomation just as baby humans lack control over their bowels.
When I was a kid I caught a few non-venomous snakes by hand, and even that was unpleasant, because their teeth are like tiny shards of glass that get stuck in your skin and are a bitch to get out.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday November 11 2017, @08:05PM (4 children)
"When I was a kid I caught a few non-venomous snakes by hand, and even that was unpleasant, because their teeth are like tiny shards of glass that get stuck in your skin and are a bitch to get out."
What kind of snakes were those?
I caught a few myself, any kid did when/where I was, but I don't remember anything like that. Just little needle-bites, barely visible, definitely nothing left inside but traces of saliva. Of course you have to squeeze and wash that in case of infection. I didn't fool with them enough to get bit more than once or twice though. One nice thing about a dog family, if you see a snake, just whistle, it'll be taken care of in short order.
*(Relative to many other sorts of venomous snakes.)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 11 2017, @08:19PM (3 children)
Pussy snakes. But I was still educated enough at that age to recognize and not grab pit vipers.
Pffffhahahaha..."infection?" "Infection" to the logical American man is only a concern of those impaled by Punji sticks or inner-city knife-wounds. The fear of "infection" from scrapes or cuts less than an inch-deep is a holdover from 19th-century granny medicine.
(Score: 4, Informative) by martyb on Sunday November 12 2017, @02:41AM (2 children)
That line of thinking could get someone killed.
My skin split open near the end of one of my fingers due to dryness. I disinfected it with an alcohol wipe and applied a bandage. Repeated the cleaning and bandage-changing for a couple days. Continued to get worse as it started oozing. Soaked it with hydrogen peroxide and applied anti-bacterial ointment. Repeated several times a day. Continued to deteriorate.
Had the wound looked at by a doctor. Was put on strong, oral antibiotics. Same night, my arm swelled in size and became red and inflamed from the fingertip nearly to my shoulder. Saw the doctor first thing the next morning. Said I had to go to the emergency room and get an IV. Thought it was going to be just a pump me up and send me home kind of thing. Nope. "Oh no no no; you're staying here for a while."
They put me on last-line-of-defense IV antibiotics. Regular dosing around the clock. I was in the hospital for 3 days undergoing this regimen... when the infection started spreading even further. They cranked up the dosage and duration of the IVs. Finally, after 6 days in the hospital, I was released and able to go home.
Had I waited one more day, I would have died. From an infection forming in a wound that was less than 1/4 inch deep.
If your wound seeps puss and/or forms a reddened area around the wound, you owe it to yourself to have it seen by a medical professional... promptly!
tl;dr infections are for real and should not be taken lightly. They can happen even in the USA and it does not require "Punji sticks or inner-city knife wounds".
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @10:39AM (1 child)
> If your wound seeps puss and/or forms a reddened area around the wound, you owe it to yourself to have it seen by a medical professional... promptly!
Unless you don't have health insurance, in which case walk it off like a champ and feel the warm glow of satisfaction that you're saving a rich person money.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2017, @02:06PM
Maybe you didn't read the above story - but you really can't NOT see a doctor for that type of wound. Figure out payment later - you are IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR ARM AND LIFE.