The Ministry of Health and Welfare is considering opening additional antivenom redistribution centers in central Taiwan, following serum shortages that affected snake-bite victims, it said on Thursday.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily on Wednesday reported that a 40-year-old man was bitten by a snake while visiting Pingtung County’s Kenting Township (墾丁) with family.
Doctors first diagnosed it as a non-venomous snake bite, but the wound continued to swell after the man returned to his Taichung home, the newspaper said, adding that a local hospital confirmed that the man had been bitten by a venomous Formosan Russel’s viper.
Photo: Yeh Yung-chien, Taipei Times
China Medical University Hospital Department of Toxicology director Hung Tung-jung (洪東榮) said that he was surprised to learn that the hospital had no serum for the Formosan Russel’s viper on hand.
Neither did other major hospitals in central Taiwan keep a supply of the serum, as its preservation period is relatively short, Hung said.
He said he had to make a same-day roundtrip by high-speed rail to Taipei Veterans General Hospital to obtain the serum and administered it on his return.
Serum for the Formosan Russel’s viper is considered an “orphan drug” under the Rare Disease and Orphan Drug Act (罕見疾病防治及藥物法), the ministry said, adding that it is best administered within two hours after a person is bitten by the snake.
National Health Insurance Administration data showed that on average only three people per year require the serum, compared with 998 who are injected with antivenom for the brown spotted pit viper and the green bamboo viper every year.
Based on distance to hospitals, hospital equipment and the national distribution of the Formosan Russel’s viper population, the serum is mostly distributed in eastern Taiwan, the ministry said.
However, it said it would consider establishing more centers in central Taiwan.
The public can look up which establishments nearby have specific serums and in what quantity on its Web site, the ministry added.
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