SYSTEMIC:
1. Fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, weakness, joint pain 2. Morbilliform or petechial generalized eruption 3. Occasionally serious hematological disturbances—hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia
DEATHS: Reported; usually in children, due to renal failure and hematological abnormalities.
TREATMENT
LOCAL FIRST AID: None effective or necessary
LOCAL: Within 4 hours of the bite, locally excise bite site
SYSTEMIC:
1. Systemic corticosteroids is the treatment of choice and must be administered immediately—methylprednisolone (Depo-Medrol) 80 mg IM, followed by prednisone 60 mg a day for 3 days and gradually tapered over a 10-14-day course of therapy 2. Heparin therapy may reduce the disseminated intravascular coagulation phenomenon 3. Analgesics for pain