Australian researchers have come up with a blood test that could dramatically speed up treatment for snakebite victims.
The test determines if a person has poison in their system, allowing doctors to give antivenom much earlier than at present.
This could protect people from irreversible nerve damage.
Medical guidelines say antivenom should be given only if a person has symptoms or has positive blood results.
However, symptoms can take up to eight hours to appear, and the current blood test takes about 12 hours, says lead researcher Dr Kalana Maduwage of the University of Newcastle.
He is optimistic a one-hour bedside test will be available within a year.
So far, his test detects venom from all poisonous snakes in Australia and New Zealand.
The next step is to include all snakes in the world, says Dr Maduwage, who presented his research at a meeting of Australian Society for Medical Research in Sydney on Monday.
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