nakebite unit set up

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Tuesday 26th March 2013

 By MALUM NALU

THE Australian Venom Research Unit (AVRU)-University of PNG (UPNG) Snakebite Research Project has set up a new snakebite treatment unit in the emergency department of Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH), as well as a new clinical laboratory at the school of medicine.

Equipment at both the unit and the laboratory are state-of-the-art, as part of preparations for the clinical trial of the new Papuan Taipan anti-venom, which is expected to start in May this year and go on for the next three years.

The laboratory is called the “Charles Campbell Toxinology Centre” (CCTC) in recognition of the achievements of PNG’s first clinical toxicologist, Associate Professor Dr Charles Haxton Campbell, who studied snakebite at the PMGH while employed there between 1956 and 1965, and who maintained his interest in the subject long after leaving PNG. 

Campbell is well remembered in PNG as a dedicated and caring doctor with an inquiring mind and passion for snake bites. 

After departing from PNG he became associate professor of tropical medicine at the University of Sydney (1966-75) and then staff specialist at the Alice Springs Hospital (1975-86). 

He currently resides in Sydney.

“The laboratory has been established as a result of the collaboration between the UPNG and the University of Melbourne (UoM) which has, since 2007, partnered in a memorandum of agreement to undertake a programme of structured research into the problems of snakebites in Papua New Guinea,” project coordinator David Williams said.

“Researchers from UPNG’s School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) and the UoM’s AVRU are focused on translational clinical and epidemiological research that can improve the treatment of snake bite in PNG, and a number of projects have been carried out in the fields of clinical toxinology, epidemiology, health worker training and anti-venom research.

“The new laboratory adds much needed research space to complement our existing stand-alone serpentarium located at the SMHS campus where a number of venomous snakes are maintained for use in research.”

Williams said the major project being