Taking the sting out of scorpion venom.

About as long as a human finger, the Arizona bark scorpion is small enough that most people probably don't even notice it. Unless they happen to step on one--and that's a different story. The scorpion's sting contains a poison so powerful that it can seriously harm or even kill a child. Every year, more than 200 children in Arizona and New Mexico become seriously ill from the sting of this scorpion. Many more get stung but have milder effects.

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There is no government-approved cure for treatment of this scorpion's sting in the United States. But now there is hope for an antivenom, and it comes from Mexico. A team of scientists in Arizona recently studied a remedy that is given to stung children in Mexico. The scientists found that the drug works quickly to reduce the harm caused by the venom.

The scorpion's venom is a type of neurotoxin. "Neuro" means nervous system and "toxin" means poison, so a neurotoxin is a poison that attacks the nervous system. A child who gets stung may start thrashing about, or moving violently, and have trouble breathing. At the hospital, the victim is given a sedative, or a drug that calms. The poison's effects may take hours or days to wear off. An adult who gets stung usually feels a lot of pain, but the symptoms are less severe.

Leslie Boyer of the University of Arizona in Tucson is a pediatrician who helped test the antivenom that is given in Mexico. In 2004 and 2005, she and her team of scientists conducted a study on 15 children who had been stung by the scorpion. Each child, when admitted to the hospital, was given either the antivenom from Mexico or a placebo.

A placebo is a common tool used by researchers who want to test how well a medication works. A placebo looks like medicine, but it is neutral--which means it has no chemical effect on the person. Researchers use a placebo so that people who participate in a study don't know if they've received the experimental medicine. In fact, ...