How it began
The physician Vital Brazil founded the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, which was established in 1901 with him as its first director. Working with the venom of Brazilian snakes, he raised a serum against the venom of the jararaca, Bothrops jararaca, and found that it did not protect against other kinds of snake. From this he concluded that a bitten person had to be treated with serum made from the venom of the same kind of snake that caused the bite.
Before it existed
Serum treatment for snakebite had been started by the French physician Albert Calmette, who was the first to use snake venom to make a treatment. Calmette believed that one serum, produced with the venom of cobras of the genus Naja, would work as a universal remedy against all snakebites. The dangerous snakes of Brazil belong to other groups, and his serum was the only model available when Vital Brazil began.
How it works
Vital Brazil produced separate sera against the venoms of the Bothrops snakes and of the rattlesnake, known as anti-bothropic and anti-crotalic sera. He also made a serum against a mixture of both venoms. That mixed product was the first polyvalent antivenom. Each serum carries antibodies raised against one venom, so the choice of serum depends on which snake bit the patient.
What changed first
Vital Brazil led a public campaign called the defense against ophidism. Farmers and rural workers sent live snakes to the institute, which kept them to collect venom for serum. From 1908 to 1962 the snakes were held in outdoor enclosures, where they survived an average of only 15 days. In 1963 they were moved indoors, and average survival rose to two months.
Where it stands today
The Butantan Institute still keeps venomous snakes to make antivenom for people bitten by Brazilian snakes, about 20,000 people a year. After an antivenom shortage in 1983, the Ministry of Health paid for improvements in snake keeping. Under later protocols, average survival in captivity reached eight years for Bothrops, ten years for Crotalus and Lachesis and four years for Micrurus.
