News
Years of local research result in new anti-venom, the answer for reptile bites in Sri Lanka
The results of five or more years of research findings and the continued efforts, local scientists have been able to produce in a World Health Organisation laboratory an anti-venom for the nearly 80,000 people who are bitten by reptiles annually, within the country.
The first stocks are to arrive in Sri Lanka as soon as the Health Ministry gives approval to import the stocks from the WHO approved laboratory at Pune in India.
Prof. R. Rajapakse, Senior Chair at the University of Peradeniya’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, said the anti venom produced in the WHO approved laboratory is the answer for reptile bites in Sri Lanka. He said the anti-venom is made from the venom of reptiles found in Sri Lanka.
Prof. Rajapakse said the Indian variety of the anti-venom is made with the venom from Indian reptiles, and sometimes it is not effective in counteracting the venom from certain Sri Lankan reptiles such as the Sri Lankan Krait, one of the most dangerous reptiles in our country.
The cost of the product is nearly half the cost of the Indian anti-venom and will save the Government a lot of money, Prof. Rajapakse said.
He also said it is not commercially viable for a laboratory in Sri Lanka to produce the 40,000 vials of anti-venom needed annually.
“The most cost-efficient method of producing the anti-venom for Sri Lanka, is by producing it in WHO approved labs. The nearest such lab for us is the one located in India,” Prof. Rajapakse said.