Major Manchek in "Venomous" must be related to the general of the same name from "The Andromeda Strain" (1972), another virus thriller. Both movies also refer to "Directive 712", described in "Andromeda Strain" as the use of a nuclear detonation to prevent the spread of a virus.
The deadly snake-transmitted virus created by the military in this movie is later revealed to be "The Satan Bug", which is also the name of a 1965 germ warfare movie starring Richard Basehart.