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Symptomatology, Pathology and Treatment of the Bites of Sea Snakes

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Book cover Snake Venoms

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 52))

Abstract

Sea snakes are the most abundant and widely dispersed of the world’s venomous reptiles. Around the coastal seas of the Indian and western Pacific oceans, fishermen encounter sea snakes every day. Sea snake venoms are highly toxic. One “drop” (about 0.03 ml) contains enough venom to kill three adult men; some sea snake species can eject seven to eight such “drops” in a single bite. Fortunately for fishermen, sea snakes are not aggressive, and even when they do bite man, rarely inject much of their highly toxic venom. If this were not the case, deaths from sea snakebite would probably stop all sea fishing in many parts of Asia—and in these vast areas, fish are a most valuable source of high-quality protein.

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  1. H. A. Reid
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1. Jen Ai Road, 1st Section, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Chen-Yuan Lee MD, Professor

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© 1979 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Reid, H.A. (1979). Symptomatology, Pathology and Treatment of the Bites of Sea Snakes. In: Lee, CY. (eds) Snake Venoms. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 52. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66913-2_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66913-2_25

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-66915-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-66913-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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