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conferenceseries.com
Volume 5, Issue 4 (Suppl) Occup Med Health Aff
ISSN: 2329-6879 OMHA, an open access journal Health Congress 2017
October 16-17, 2017
October 16-17, 2017 Dubai, UAE
12th World Congress on
Industrial Health, Healthcare and Medical Tourism
The changing character of rattlesnake bite in Southern Arizona
Mobarak Al Harthi, Nicholas B. Hurst, Keith Boesen and F. Mazda Shirazi
University of Arizona, US
Globally, Snakebite accidents are associated with occupational environmental hazard and sport activities. Different reviews
showed snakebite as a major occupational and recreational activities hazard. It is estimated that 9000 snakebites treated
annually in the United States. Arizona has the highest per capita envenomation per year in the country. Rattlesnake bites were
found more likely to be coded as having major clinical effects or death. Many cases from 1980s and 1990s from the US had
shown an association between snakebite accidents and risk taking behaviors by men under influence of alcohol. A legitimate
bite was said to have occurred if a person was bitten before an encounter with a snake was recognized or was bitten while
attempting to move away from a snake. The same authors have advocated that as many as half of the rattlesnake bites on upper
extremities can be eliminated if risk taking behavior was eliminated after a rattlesnake was encountered.
The US literature is lacking in association between occupational and recreational activities with snakebites. We conducted
a retrospective review of snakebite patients in southern and rural Arizona from 2002-2014. The goal was to describe the
circumstances and demographics of the patients and how these changed over time. We found a statistically significant increase
in the average age of patients from 35 to 45 years over time. We also found a statistically significant increase in lower extremity
bites, and we found out that envenomation resulting from gardening/yard work as well hiking/taking out the trash/stepping on
rattlesnakes have increased significantly. These factors are potential indicators of non-risk taking behaviors. Our center’s data
shows an increasing trend in snakebites in southern & rural Arizona to be related to non-risk taking behavior activities such as
hiking, landscaping, golfing or gardening which is more in line with world’s literature.
Biography
Mobarak is an emergency physician and medical toxicology fellow at Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, University of Arizona, Tucson-Arizona, he has
special interest in envenomation and occupational hazardous materials, and he is an AHLS (advance hazmat life support) instructor, he submitted papers and
abstracts on envenomation.
Mobarak Al Harthi et al., Occup Med Health Aff 2017, 5:4 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2329-6879-C1-038