South African Snakebite Symposium

01/08/2026

Awesome 🙌🏽 🇲🇿🐍♥️

16/07/2026

World Snake Day 🐍♥️

30/06/2026

Awesome 🙌🏽 🐍♥️

☕ Honoured to be joining the EpicEM team this Thursday for Coffee & Cases to discuss one of the most challenging emergencies we encounter in prehospital and emergency care... snakebite.

Snakebite patients rarely arrive with a label telling us what's going to happen next.

Some walk into a clinic looking well and deteriorate rapidly hours later. Others present with dramatic local symptoms but never develop life-threatening envenomation. The challenge is knowing which is which, and making the right decisions before the patient reaches definitive care.

This week, together with the incredible team at EpicEM, we'll be exploring real snakebite cases, discussing common pitfalls in management, and looking at the practical decision-making process that influences patient outcomes long before they reach hospital.

As someone who has spent nearly two decades working in emergency medicine and has been involved in snakebite education, research, and protocol development across Southern Africa, I'm looking forward to sharing lessons learned from the field and engaging with healthcare professionals from across the country.

Whether you're a Paramedic, Emergency Care Practitioner, Nurse, Doctor, Student, or simply interested in emergency medicine, I believe you'll leave with practical knowledge that can be applied on your very next patient.

📅 Thursday, 2 July 2026
⏰ 09:00 SAST
🎙️ Hosted by the EpicEM Team
👨‍⚕️ Guest Presenter: Nick van der Walt

✅ FREE to attend
✅ CPD Accredited
✅ Live Q&A
✅ Open to all healthcare professionals

👉 Link for the session: 7ebad8cb-2b15-449d-8264-59ffc8bf25cd@17f60551-d0e0-4adb-81f9-9424c66f6e3f" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/7ebad8cb-2b15-449d-8264-59ffc8bf25cd@17f60551-d0e0-4adb-81f9-9424c66f6e3f

A huge thank you to the EpicEM team for the invitation. Looking forward to an engaging discussion and seeing many of you online.

Tag a colleague who works in emergency medicine, emergency nursing, critical care, toxicology, or EMS and invite them to join us.

🐍🚑☕

26/06/2026

Hospital Care Provider Flipper Card

The National Snake Advisory Group (NSAG) are pleased to share this practical quick-reference UPDATED flipper card developed to support emergency department and critical care clinicians.

Designed as a rapid cognitive aid, these flipper cards provide practical guidance to support clinical decision-making. They are intended as **guidelines only** and are **not a substitute for sound clinical judgment.

Hospital clinicians will also find dedicated guidance on the administration of SAVP and PANAF antivenom, together with practical Snakebite Pearls for the management of paediatric, pregnant and elderly patients.

Please feel free to **save**, **share**, and **tag colleagues** who may find them useful.

26/06/2026

Snakebite Airway & Ventilation Flipper Card

The National Snake Advisory Group (NSAG) are pleased to share this practical quick-reference UPDATED flipper card developed to support prehospital, emergency department and critical care clinicians on an approach to airway in snakebite and basic ventilation strategies for managing neurotoxic snakebite.

Designed as a rapid cognitive aid, these flipper cards provide practical guidance to support clinical decision-making. They are intended as **guidelines only** and are **not a substitute for sound clinical judgment.

Please feel free to **save**, **share**, and **tag colleagues** who may find them useful.

17/01/2026

Discovered an exceptional page dedicated to snakes and snakebite education 🐍📚
Insightful, evidence-based, and incredibly well curated.
Outstanding work, Roberto Tipon/Serpientes de Colombia/Accidente ofídico. — truly professional and impactful.

🐍📜 Cómo se trataban las mordeduras de serpiente antes del suero

Antes del desarrollo del suero antiofídico (finales del siglo XIX), las mordeduras se trataban con una mezcla de observación empírica, medicina tradicional y creencias. La mayoría de los métodos no funcionaban y muchos empeoraban el daño.

⸻

🏺 Antigüedad
• Hierbas y ungüentos sobre la herida
• Sangrías para “sacar el veneno”
• Rezós y conjuros

📌 Algunos pacientes sobrevivían por mordeduras secas o venenos leves, lo que reforzaba la creencia.

⸻

🏛️ Grecia y Roma
• Torniquetes prolongados
• Cortes profundos en la herida
• Aplicación de sustancias calientes o cáusticas

🔬 Hoy se sabe que estas prácticas aumentaban necrosis e infección.

⸻

🌏 India, China y África
• Uso de plantas con efectos antiinflamatorios
• Vendajes compresivos (a veces útiles, a veces peligrosos)
• Rituales de succión por “curanderos”

📌 Algunas técnicas aportaban alivio del dolor, ninguna neutralizaba el veneno.

⸻

🏰 Edad Media
• Amuletos, piedras “antídoto”
• Mezclas minerales y animales
• Interpretación religiosa del accidente

⸻

🧪 Siglos XVIII–XIX
• Experimentos con alcohol, arsénico y mercurio
• Uso de electricidad
• Observación clínica más sistemática

👉 Se comprendió que el veneno actuaba por la sangre.

⸻

💉 El cambio histórico

En 1894, Albert Calmette desarrolló el primer suero antiofídico eficaz, reduciendo la mortalidad de forma drástica.

⸻

🧠 Antes del suero, la supervivencia era una cuestión de suerte, no de tratamiento.

Fuente:
• Calmette, A. (1896). Contribution à l’étude des venins. Institut Pasteur.
• Gutiérrez, J. M., et al. Snakebite envenoming. Nature Reviews Disease Primers.
• Warrell, D. A. Snake bite. The Lancet.
• WHO. Guidelines for the Management of Snakebite Envenoming.
• Instituto Clodomiro Picado (UCR). Historia del suero antiofídico.
• De Kruif, P. Microbe Hunters (capítulo sobre el desarrollo de antivenenos).