Every year people encounter snakes and, of course, are afraid of them. In almost every region of Russia, vipers are found and sometimes bite people.

🐍 Snakes save their "venom" for hunting and digestion. A snake bite is an act of desperation when the snake cannot escape and avoid conflict. For example, when someone steps on it. Snakes have well-developed sensory organs, so they often slither away unnoticed by humans in advance.

🐍 The venom of the common viper (Vipera berus) affects blood clotting, increases vascular permeability, and causes damage to the skin and muscles in the bite area.

🐍 The venom contains several enzymes (used for subsequent digestion of the prey): high-molecular-weight proteases (with hemorrhagic, hemocoagulating, and necrotizing effects), peptide hydrolases, hyaluronidases, and phospholipases.

🐍 The bite of the common viper is potentially dangerous for humans but extremely rarely leads to death (in the UK from 1876–2005 — 14 deaths, the last in 1975).

🐍 About 70% of those bitten either experience no symptoms or only feel a burning pain at the bite site.

🐍 In Russia, several thousand cases of viper bites are recorded annually in the European territory; fatal cases account for 0.3%, with bites from the Levantine viper and sand viper being fatal, not the common viper.

🐍 Symptoms after a bite:
• Within a few hours: pain, swelling, burning, redness; swelling spreads quickly.
• In severe intoxication (15–30 min): dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pale skin, increased sweating, chills, tachycardia.
• With high sensitivity: loss of consciousness, facial swelling, significant drop in blood pressure, DIC syndrome (profuse bleeding), kidney failure, convulsions.
• Full recovery usually occurs within 2–3 weeks.

🐍 What to do if bitten:
1. Call and report your location and that you were bitten by a snake.
2. Seek medical attention as soon as possible (preferably a trauma center) for possible antivenom administration.
3. Stay calm, move minimally (muscle contractions accelerate venom absorption).
4. Drink plenty of water.

🐍 Antivenom against viper venom exists and is available at trauma centers. The antidote is not administered to everyone, but only in cases of multiple bites, children, the elderly, or when there is a risk of systemic effects. Do not try to find and use it yourself.

🐍 For walks in the forest, choose long pants. Better yet, walk with a stick and rustle through the grass, so we scare away snakes in advance, reducing the chance of accidentally stepping on them.

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