Wisconsin,Jan 22: An amateur scientist has deliberately endured more than 160 self-inflicted snake bites in a bid to become immune to venom.
Tim Friede is obsessed by finding a human antidote to poisonous snake bites, which kill an estimated 100,000 people every year. “I will not stop doing this until the vaccine is in the field or I die,” he told Barcroft Media.
Friede was recently bitten by a taipan and a black mamba, two deadly snakes he keeps at his home in Wisconsin, USA, in addition to his two rattlesnakes and water cobra. He said he experienced a “real throbbing sensation” but he “felt great” after the bites. “It really hurts and it swells but that’s it,” he said.
After two consecutive cobra bites in 2011, he fell into a coma and almost died, he said. “Because it was so bad it’s really cool to be at this stage now where I can beat these bites,” he said.
“I started this because I wanted to self-immunize in case I was bitten while handling my snakes, but when I witnessed the results I realised that this could be used for the greater good. Too many people die from snake bites and I know that my vaccine will help them when it is fully developed.”
Snake bites pose a significant, yet neglected global health problem, venom expert Dr Rachel Currier, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the Independent. In addition to the 100,00 deaths every year, 400,000 surviving victims are left with permanent disabilities.
But regarding Friede’s amateur work, she said: “Self-immunization with snake venom is incredibly dangerous, even more so when done in an uncontrolled environment.
“Research into snake bite antidotes primarily requires an understanding of the different toxic components which make up venoms. Historically, treatments for snake bites have been produced by hyper-immunizing horses or sheep with harmless amounts of venom.”
Ex-wife Beth divorced Friede last year after 20 years of marriage, exasperated by his dangerous amateur research. “The snakes were always first”, she said. “Me and the kids never came in first, sometimes not even second.
“I was always scared of [the snakes] so it was terrifying living with them for nearly 20 years – by the end of it I’d just had enough.”
