Drug Not Approved in U.S. May Aid Children Stung by Scorpions, Researchers Say

Anascorp, a drug that is available in Mexico but not approved in the United States, can help children who have been stung by a scorpion to recover from the injury, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

While scorpion stings are not always severe and may not require a trip to the emergency room, children who are stung are more likely than adults to suffer from severe neurological and respiratory problems. People who have been stung by a scorpion may experience a painful, tingling, burning sensation at the sting site.

Severe symptoms of a scorpion bit may include numbness, difficulty swallowing, a thick tongue, blurred vision, roving eye movements, seizures, salivation, and difficulty breathing. In some cases, a scorpion bite can be fatal.

Approximately 8,000 people are stung by poisonous scorpions in Arizona each year, including about 200 young children who experience severe symptoms, officials said.

Children Stung by Scorpions Studied

Researchers led by the University of Arizona studied 15 children between the ages of 1 and 10 who were brought into a pediatric intensive care unit within five hours of being stung by a scorpion. All the children lived in Arizona.

Each child was given standard medical treatment for the sting. Eight of the children also were given an intravenous dose of Anascorp, while the other seven children were given a placebo.

The researchers found that all eight children who received Anascorp recovered within four hours of the treatment, compared to just one of the seven children in the placebo group who recovered within the same time, researchers said.

Faster Recovery Seen

None of the patients who got Anascorp still had detectable levels of scorpion venom in their blood when tested an hour later. Within two hours of the treatment, their sting symptoms also had started to ease. Also, patients treated with Anascorp required smaller doses of sedative while in the hospital compared to children who received placebos, the researchers said.

Anascorp’s ability to speed recovery from scorpion stings mean the drug might be an effective first-line of defense given to patients as soon as they arrive in an emergency room, which may avoid the need for treatment in an intensive care unit, researchers said.

However, researchers said many questions remain about the efficacy of Anascorp. For one thing, the Arizona study was small and the same findings might not translate to larger research. Also, it is possible that getting treated again with Anascorp could be riskier than the first treatment, a risk the study did not address, researchers said.

Anascorp is made by the Mexican drug maker Instituto Bioclon. It is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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