Rattlesnake Bite Victims Showing Extreme Symptoms

May 26, 2008— -- PHOENIX (AP) - A rattlesnake strikes.

The victim experiences extreme pain at the location of the bite,nausea, sometimes diarrhea. Then the mouth and throat swell, makingit difficult to breath. The victim gets lightheaded, collapses andgoes into shock -- all within minutes of the strike.

The potentially deadly symptoms used to be fairly rare, buttoxicologists in Arizona, Colorado and California say they'reseeing some or all of them more than ever, and that they could becontributing to an increase in fatal rattlesnake bites in Arizona.

At least five people have died from rattlesnake bites in Arizonasince 2002 -- three or four of them from the extreme symptoms, saidSteve Curry, director of medical toxicology at the Banner PoisonControl Center in Phoenix.

Curry could recall just five fatal rattlesnake bites in the twodecades before 2002.

Scientists and toxicologists can take guesses at what's behindthe spike in extreme symptoms, but no one yet knows what's goingon. Some say it could be a change in snake venom, a change in thesnakes themselves, or something altogether different.

"This is a brand new phenomenon," said Jeffrey Brent, clinicalprofessor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health SciencesCenter. "It should spur a considerable amount of research in thearea."

Brent said he hadn't seen the extreme symptoms in patients untillast year, when there were five. "They came pretty darn close todying," he said. "They were extremely, extremely sick."

He said there haven't been any such bites so far this year, butthat the season is just getting started.

Rattlesnake bite victims in California began showing symptoms ofweakness, breathing trouble and low blood pressure this year, saidRichard Clark, director of the division of medical toxicology atthe University of California-San Diego.

He said about a dozen people have been affected and one patienthas died since January.