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| Ecosave:
against which kinds of poison?
ECOSAVE's operation is based
on the principle of the electric discharges that
is effective against haemotoxic venom and not
against neurotoxic venom. IMPORTANT:
the validity of this principle has been demonstrated
in real circumstances; it has not been applied
on all the poisons against which it could theoretically
be effective, (above all in the cases of the rarest
animals), because of the experimentation difficulties
and the impossibility of carrying out laboratory
tests in Europe (that cannot be reliable if carried
out with lyophilized venom).
In the following paragraphs,
we will try to indicate in a simplified way, the
animals that produce a haemotoxic kind of venom
and the ones that produce a neurotoxic kind of
venom.
Because of the complexity of this matter, the
lack of clarity and the non-completeness of the
knowledge at our disposal today, above all as
far as the rarest species are concerned, the reported
information is given by way of simple indication
and does not want to be exhaustive at all.
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SNAKES
Of all the snakes, just a part of them injects
venom when it bites, and in general all of them
bite only when they are bothered or feel to be
in danger.
Snakes' venom is composed of a combination of
protein molecules and toxins that act differently
depending on their composition. There are mainly
two different kinds of venom, classified as per
the produced effects: neurotoxic poisons and haemotoxic
venom. The neurotoxins, that prevail in the neurotoxic
venom, act on the nervous system, provoking the
interruption of the nerve impulse's transmission,
with the temporary numbness of the affected area
and intense pain, and on the respiratory system,
causing respiratory failure. If the venom is particularly
aggressive and in proportional quantities if compared
to the victim's size, it can lead to paralysis,
with the consequent cardiac arrest or to asphyxia
and consequently to death.
The haemotoxic venom is mostly
composed of haemotoxins, that act on the cardiovascular
system, on the hemocoagulation system and on the
red blood cells, destroying them and triggering
a chain reaction in the affected body, culminating,
in the most severe cases, in the blood coagulation
or in internal bleeding which lead, in most cases,
to death.
The venom produced by the snakes' venomous glands
is generally of both kinds, but normally just
one type is predominant, and it is starting from
this that the snake is classified as neurotoxic
venom snakes or haemotoxic venom snakes.
Among the snakes that inject haemotoxic venom
we can include:
- Viperids (European and other Continents' vipers)
- Crotalids (the American rattlesnake).
On the contrary, among the snakes
that inject neurotoxic venom we can enumerate:
- Cobra
- Mamba
- Coral Snakes
- Taipan
- Sea-snakes.
See list
Warning
Ecosave is effective against snakes bites belonging
to the first group, since it acts on the haemotoxic
kinds of poison; on the contrary it is not effective
on the neurotoxic kinds of poison.
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INSECTS Vespids (wasps,
bumble-bees) and Apids (bees)
In several Apids' poisons
(above all in our country's Apis mellifera) and
in Vespids' poisons, (above all, in Italy, the
Vespa crabro or bumble-bee, Polistes gallicus
or paper wasp, Vespula germanica or German wasp,
Vespula vulgaris or common wasp, and other wasps
of the Vespula kind), there are complex toxic
substances, that in normosensitive individuals,
provoke local symptoms that can persist for many
hours, for example an intense pain and an erythema-oedematous
reaction on the affected part, which are effectively
treatable with ECOSAVE. Generally, a normosensitive
person can tolerate many stings, without irreversible
damages.
On the contrary, hypersensitive and allergic subjects
can develop more severe manifestations, that can
vary from acute urticaria to oedema (which are
usually combined), to bronchial asthma until the
anaphylactic shock with sudden coma and cardiac-respiratory
arrest. In these cases, ECOSAVE can decelerate
the quick progression of the toxic effects, but
it cannot prevent them, and the therapeutic intervention
remains crucial. In an allergic person, one sting
only can cause an anaphylactic reaction with a
fatal outcome.
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ARACHNIDAN
Spiders
Almost all the spiders are venomous, but most
of them have very small and brittle teeth to penetrate
into the skin, and their venom is not strong enough,
or the quantities that they can inject is too
scarce to endanger man (obviously with the due
exceptions).
The most venomous spiders belong to the varieties
Latrodectus, Loxosceles and Lycosa (secondarily)
that also live in Europe.
The species that are able to sting, eject from
the aculeate end of their pincers, substances
having a mainly hemolytic action that paralyze
or kill their preys.
Usually, the most serious spider bites are the
ones that inject the neurotoxic principles (as
for the black widow; this case of poisoning is
called lactrodectism) and necrotizing or haemotoxic
principles (brown spiders, violin spiders and
some house spiders; in this case it is called
loxoscelism).
ECOSAVE is based on a principle that can be generally
applied to neutralize the "house" spiders'
venom, for example the house-spider or the tarantula,
and against loxoscelism; it could also be used
in case of lactrodectism to reduce the local symptoms
of pain, stinging, swelling, flush and possible
necrosis on the affected area, but not against
the most extended neurotoxic manifestations that
require medical help and a suitable antibiotic
therapy.
See list
Scorpions
Most of the scorpions, especially in Italy, are
relatively harmless, since they can sting but
they are not dangerous; as a matter of fact their
stings generally cause just localized pain, itching,
stinging and swelling; in case the regional hyperadenosis
they can cause the skin temperature's increase
and the sensitivity around the wound. In most
cases, the effects of their sting are comparable
to the ones of a wasp's sting in a normosensitive
subject.
Some species belonging to the variety of Centruroides,
Androctonus, Tityus, Leinus and Buthus, common
above all in the Southern regions of North, Central
and Southern America, in Africa, in the Middle
East and in Asia, clearly have more toxic venoms
if compared to many other species. Their sting
can cause more severe manifestations, as the outbreak
of inflammatory reactions or of necrotic-hemorrhagic
lesions, until cardiotoxic effects in the worst
cases, sometimes being so serious that they can
result to be lethal.
Anyway, the effects depend on the kind and on
the dimensions of the scorpion, on the affected
subject's reactivity and on his weight, that influences
the concentration of the venom in his organism.
ECOSAVE is based on the principle that is generally
applicable to reduce or cure the local symptomatology
(stinging and swelling) in the greatest part of
the a bites. Nevertheless, ECOSAVE's efficacy
is ensured only as a first aid instrument, in
case of hypersensitive people and in case of development
of a more complex systemic symptomatology.
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MARINE ANIMALS
Coelenterate
(jellyfishes, corals, sea anemones and hydroids)
They all have very well differentiated stinging
apparatuses, the nematocyst, that penetrates
the human skin. The immediate consequences are
stinging, itching, flush and swelling. The most
severe clinical systemic manifestations, that
depend on the species the subject has got in
contact with and on his sensitivity, generally
include weakness, nausea, headache, muscular
aches and spasms, lachrymation and running nose,
increase in transpiration, heart-beat's alteration
and thoracic pleura aches.
ATTENTION: in the most dangerous
species' venom, the neurotoxic components are
predominant: ECOSAVE is then not effective.
Jellyfish.
The jellyfishes' urtications are all due to
the nematocysts's discharges, that is made of
capsular filaceous structures containing substances
having an urticant and/or toxic action, ejected
by specialized cells called cnidoblasts (cnidos
means “stinging nettle”) that can
mainly be found on the tentacles.
The contact with the tentacles of the jellyfishes
that live in the Mediterranean Sea leads to
urticary lesions that provoke more or less intense
stingings.
In some species of jellyfishes, as the Carukia
barnesi and the Chironex fleckeri, both inhabitants
of the Australian Seas, the so-called “sea
wasp or box jellyfish” Chiropsalmus quadrigatu,
in the Pacific Ocean between Australia and the
Philippines, or the “Portuguese Man-of-war”
Physalia Physalis, in the tropical and subtropical
waters, the greater toxicity of the nematocysts
can provoke a more severe systemic symptomatology,
that sometimes can lead to the death of the
affected person. Their venom is a mixture of
different toxins that can affect, in accordance
with the kind, the nervous system, the muscular
one and the red blood cells also provoking cell
necrosis.
ECOSAVE is based on the
principle that can be used to relieve the local
symptomatology (stinging, itching, flush) provoked
by the urtications, also severe, of jellyfishes
living in our Seas; it is not effective against
the proteic neurotoxic compositions of tropical
jellyfishes.
Fishes
e Shellfishes
Different species of fishes have stings or spines
connected to glands producing stinging substances
that, if injected into the human skin, are responsible
for intense pain, oedema and sometimes limited
necrosis.
Among the animals that inject
a haemotoxic kind of venom, against which ECOSAVE
is effective, the most common is the greater
weever.
On the contrary, among
the fishes that produce a venom that can induce
a neurotoxic kind of general symptomatology,
sometimes with convulsions and shock, there
are some fishes common in the Mediterranean
Sea (ray, weever-fish, cat fish, long-spined
bullhead, etc.) and many inhabitants of the
tropical seas, as the stonefish (Synanceja Horrida)
and the scorpionfish (Pterois Volitans) or,
among the shellfishes, the Conus geographus
that colonizes the tropical barrier reefs, and
the Octopus maculosus, common in the Australian
seas.
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