An inexpensive drug used to thin the blood in the human body has shown efficacy against cobra venom. A team of scientists from Australia, Canada, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom has made such a claim.

Already, the drug called heparin has been successfully applied experimentally on rats. Later it will be tested on humans.

About 138,000 people die from snakebite in low and middle income countries in Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Such deaths are more common in poor rural areas. Apart from this, more than 400,000 people suffer from narcosis every year due to snake bites. In this, the tissue around the site of the snake bite dies and turns black.

In India and parts of Africa, the majority of snakebites are cobra bites. Scientists say the drug heparin can prevent necrosis from some spitting cobra venom.

Although the drug is not effective against all types of snake venom; However, scientists say, this drug is cheaper and more flexible than conventional antivenom. Most of the conventional antivenoms are effective against the venom of a specific species of snake and cannot prevent necrosis.

'Global Struggle'
Senior researcher and Professor Greg Neely of the University of Sydney said, 'Our discovery will greatly reduce the severity of necrotic injuries caused by cobra bites. The severity of the poison can also be reduced through the use of this medicine. And it will reduce the death rate.'

Tian Du, a researcher and PhD student at the University of Sydney, called it a big step forward.

“Heparin is cheap, readily available and an emergency medicine listed by the World Health Organization,” Tian Du said.

Tian Du believes that the drug could soon become a cheap, safe and effective medicine for treating cobra bites if successful in human trials.

Nicholas Casewell, head of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine's Center for Snakebite Research and Interventions, was also on the scientific team. He said, 'The problem of snakebite remains in the list of neglected deadly diseases in the tropics. People in rural areas of low and middle income countries are suffering the most.'

Nicholas Casewell added that existing antivenoms are not very effective in preventing the painful swelling, blistering or tissue narcosis that occurs around the site of a snake bite. It destroys the function of human organs. It can even make people physically disabled in the long term.

In this case, Casewell is optimistic about his own discovery.