West African Carpet Viper

DESCRIPTION:

The West African Carpet Viper is also known as the Ocellated carpet viper or African Saw-scaled Viper. Adult size averages 30 to 50 cm with a maximum length of around 65 cm. Carpet vipers are characterized by a short head and bulging eyes. The body is moderately robust with a short tail. Variable in color-pattern but generally sandy brown above fading to whitish below. The back has a series of round light-colored blotches in-between dark transverse blotches. Along the sides a series of small whitish colored dots are present, with one whitish dot in the center of each dark blotch.

HABITS & HABITAT:

The West African Carpet Viper is found mainly in savanna but often found in well wooded terrain and has been found on primary rainforest fringes. They are nocturnal as well as active at dawn and dusk. It may move by sidewinding. If annoyed it will loop its body and rub its scales together producing a hissing sound.

DISTRIBUTION:

Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea (Conakry), Gambia, Niger.

VENOM:

It’s responsible for more fatalities than all other African snakes combined, the venom of the West African Carpet Viper is a compound of procoagulants, anticoagulants, hemorraghins, nephrotoxins and necrotoxins,

SYMPTOMS:

Local pain, swelling, bleeding, necrosis and disfigurement which may result in amputation. Systemic symptoms include coagulopathy, hemorraghes, shock, renal failure and blindness. The envenoming rate is 80% and the lethality rate is 10-20%.

Stage 0 Coagulopathy without spontaneous bleeding
Stage 1 Persistent atraumatic bleeding from the bite wound >1 h
Stage 2 Bleeding from old cuts and wounds elsewhere on patient
Stage 3 Spontaneous bleeding from healthy mucosa (eg, gingival bleeding, epistaxis)
Stage 4 Externalization of internal bleeding (eg, hematemesis, melena)
Stage 5 Intracranial, intra-abdominal, or retroperitoneal bleeding; hemorrhagic shock

FIRST AID:

Do not apply any bandage and do not interfere with the bite; proceed immediately to a medical facility.

ANTIVENOM:

Echitab-plus-ICP – 1 to 3 Vials