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 Health & Beauty | April 2006 
Hospitals Testing Mexican Drug for Scorpion Stings
 William Hermann - Arizona Republic
When 15-month-old Molly Hunter was stung by a scorpion on Super Bowl Sunday this year, her parents made what they now believe was a lifesaving decision and rushed to Chandler Regional Hospital.
They didn't know they had chosen one of the few hospitals in the state where an antivenin was being tested, an antivenin doctors believed could save Molly's life.
The drug, Anascorp, is specifically meant for children stung by the potentially deadly bark scorpion. So far, it has helped more than 50 children and, if approved by the FDA, could be used to treat children for years to come.
Britt Hunter said she and her husband moved fast after Molly was stung.
"We grabbed her and got in the car, and Molly's screams were blood-curdling," Britt Hunter said. "I was terrified, and my husband was driving like a wild man. Then Molly began salivating and shaking and her eyes were rolling. It was horrible." When the Hunters got to the emergency room, Dr. Bryan Tiffany saw symptoms that indicated the child's life was in danger.
Tiffany gave Molly the antivenin injection that may have saved her life. It certainly kept her from having a breathing tube snaked down her throat to help keep saliva from choking her. It also may have avoided days in intensive care.
Chandler Regional has had the drug since fall, and Tiffany is relieved to have it because week after week children are brought in with scorpion stings, he said. The Banner Poison Control Center, which serves Maricopa County, gets about 20 to 30 calls a day regarding scorpion stings among children and adults.
Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn and Scottsdale Healthcare Shea are the only other hospitals in Arizona with the new antivenin.
"We're most concerned with the sting from a bark scorpion," Tiffany said. "It's an intensely painful sting because of the way the toxins work and very dangerous for a child. It can be fatal."
Tiffany said a child stung by a bark scorpion, a species found almost exclusively in Arizona and Mexico, will immediately complain of pain.
"There are also neurological symptoms: twitching locally and then all over the body," Tiffany said. "There can be roving-eye movement. There is salivation that worsens to the point of being a threat to the airway; the child will literally be drowning."
Supplies of a previously used antivenin have run out and can't be replaced, largely because the antivenin was not FDA-approved. It also had side effects that later were considered dangerous.
About five years ago, a company based in Mexico City began developing Anascorp, a different, safer drug to treat stings from bark scorpions. While widely used in Mexico, it hasn't been approved for sale in the United States.
University of Arizona and Arizona Poison Center (in Tucson) medical researchers are leading efforts to test Anascorp in Arizona hospitals and then to get the drug approved by the FDA.
Dr. Leslie Boyer, director of the Arizona Poison Center, said the antivenin has been available for two years.
"We work with a lot of antivenins, and there is no question that this is an effective drug: You see an immediate change in the patient," Boyer said. "And we've seen no serious side effects, no adverse events attributable to the drug."
Boyer said she and her colleagues will appear before the FDA next month to try to get the drug approved.
"We are sure the children in Arizona can benefit from the special availability of this antivenin," Boyer said.
Britt and Bruce Hunter know of at least one child who benefited. |
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