Haffkine institute doctors have come up with new research on anti-scorpion venom serum, which will decrease the mortality rate and reduce hospital stay of scorpion bite patients.

The doctors, who conducted the research to find the serum's efficacy, found out that wrong administering of the serum was the reason for the high mortality rate. The research has been made part of the medical council papers.

Prakash Sabde, managing director, Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd said, "We started using anti-scorpion venom serum in 1997. However, many doctors and people rejected it saying the serum is not effective. During Dr Vivek Natu's research, he found that the patient bitten by scorpion needs to be given proper dose of the serum."

Doctors, earlier, didn't know how much dose needed to be given and patients were given same the amount irrespective of the poison content in their body.

Natu and Dr Santosh Kamerkar did a survey of 100 people and graded them according to the severity of poison presence in their bodies. Natu tabulated the dose required as per the patient's age and poison content in the body.

The serum neutralises the venom, which stops adrenaline release.

"That is why signs of improvement are seen within an hour and the patient recovers in three to four hours. Many doctors were using Prazosin (an alpha blocker drug) which only takes care of the effects of poison and doesn't neutralise the venom. Since the venom, in this treatment, stays in the body for more than 30 hours, patient needed to be monitored for more than a day or two," said Sabde.

This year, 4,779 people died from scorpion bite in state. Every year, 10,000 people die in India.

Scorpion bite cases are more in the Konkan belt. "Apart from locals, trekkers from various parts of the country, abroad and film fraternity visit Konkan and fall in prey to scorpion bites," said Sabde.