By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 5 September 2017:
Libya’s venomous scorpions cause the greatest havoc at this time of year, with their painful stings sometimes proving fatal to the very young or very old. In a growing trend of fatalities this year at least three people have died from scorpion bites in Obari. Traditional remedies, particularly the application of garlic poultices, rarely prove effective
The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday delivered to Tripoli 4,000 doses of scorpion anti-venom to be distributed all over the country. This June Beida government health minister Reida El-Oakley said that ten thousand doses of anti-venom serum were required after it was reported this June that in and around Obari a dozen people had been bitten by scorpions in the first week of the month. Most of the victims are said to have died.
The Presidency Council health ministry has since maintained that it sent 300 anti-venom doses to Obari. It also said that this June it had received another 3,000 scorpion-bite treatments, though it did not say from where.
Last year the WHO organised the supply of serum from Egypt’s Vascera but for reasons that were never made clear, the anti-venom doses were never delivered.
