Common viper bite in humans

Introduction

A crossed viper is a poisonous snake, which occurs in Germany as well as other countries in Europe and Asia. Normally the snakes are very shy, so a bite is very rare. Usually only snake keepers are affected by a bite, who were careless for a short time when handling their animals.

An adder only bites when the snake sees no possibility to escape or feels strongly threatened itself. Touching the snake may be enough to threaten it and therefore contact with the snake is not recommended for inexperienced people. With an adder bite the snake’s venom is also injected in small amounts under the skin. A bite of the snake is not fatal for a person of normal weight without allergies to the poison. The lethal dose of the bite is only reached from about 5 viper bites, which explains why there are almost no known deaths after viper bites.

Symptoms

The bite of a viper is initially accompanied by severe pain at the bite site. About one hour after the bite, there is a strong swelling at the affected area and bruising often occurs. Depending on whether the venom reaches the fatty tissue, the muscles under the skin or directly into the bloodstream (rare), the systemic symptoms of the venom appear after a few minutes or hours.

The poison is a nerve poison, which is why systemic symptoms such as heart palpitations and breathing problems, sweating, and general malaise and circulatory problems are typical consequences of a crossed viper bite. In summary, these are also the symptoms of shock. However, it should be noted that the systemic effect can vary in strength depending on the amount of poison injected.

Often the symptoms are perceived only slightly as the amount of poison is small. Stronger symptoms occur in children or elderly people, as well as in people with a very low body weight. More pronounced symptoms occur if the person concerned is allergic to the poison. Then a bite can cause your dangerous anaphylactic shock.