SAN ANTONIO -- A serious bite from a coral snake can give you cardiac arrest, and soon you may not be able to get much help if you're bitten.
The FDA is anticipating a shortage of coral snake anti-venom.
It is one of the deadliest snakes in San Antonio.
It's a serious venom. More serious than a rattle snake, Robert Jackson says.
Jackson is the reptile supervisor at Snake Farm. He says an untreated bite from a coral snake can kill you within
an hour. Soon doctors won't have the anti-venom for it either.
Pfizer makes the only FDA-approved coral snake anti-venom and they are running out.
The company shutdown it's plant in 2003. Now the FDA says the last vials will expire in just five months
from now, in October.
It's a concern if you're working with snakes. The most dangerous one is the one right in front of you, Jackson says.
But Jackson adds that coral snake bites are rare, less than one percent a year.
Metro Health told KENS 5 they have not been tracking coral snake bites. Thelast reported death in the country was in the 1960's.
Jackson says coral snakes don't typically attack unless you step on them. The most important thing he adds is to watch your step and learn the colors.
Jackson says, if the red is touching the yellow, it's deadly. As the saying goes, red and black is a friend of jack. Red and yellow will kill a fellow.
