The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a specific medication for scorpion stings. The drug, Anascorp, is an injection made from horse plasma and scorpion venom.
“This product provides a new treatment for children and adults and is designed specifically for scorpion stings,” said Karen Midthun, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “Scorpion stings can be life-threatening, especially in infants and children.”
How dangerous are scorpions?
Most scorpions in the United States are harmless, according to Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, but there are about 30 kinds of venomous scorpions that can cause serious health problems if people are stung. Most of these venomous scorpions live in the south western part of the United States, specifically Arizona.
How do scorpions sting?
Scorpions are usually about 3-8 inches long, have eight legs, a set of claw-like pinchers, and a tail that contains toxins. A scorpion will quickly and swiftly swing its tail at anything it feels threatened by and can control the amount of venom it releases depending on how intimated it feels.
What happens when a person is stung?
If a child is stung, it’s a little more serious than if an adult is stung. Children may experience pain and numbness around the sting, muscle twitching, unusual head or eye movements, drooling, sweating, and restlessness. An adult could experience rapid breathing, high blood pressure, and muscle twitching.
How does the new medication work?
The effectiveness of Anascorp was based on several successful studies, one which tested 15 children with neurological signs of scorpion stings. After being injected with Anascrop the children’s symptoms calmed in four hours. The most common side effects were vomiting, fever, headache and muscle pain. In total, safety and efficacy data was collected from 1,534 patients in both open-label and blinded studies.
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