Snakes can be venomous or non-venomous. Venomous snakes produce venom which is highly toxic saliva. Snakebite envenoming is an injection of venom into humans by a venomous snake bite or venom sprayed into the humans’ eyes. There are many species of venomous snakes which are found in the jungle of Australia, South America, Africa and Asia. Snakebite is common in rural areas of Tropical countries such as Africa, Asia, and South America. They do not get much media, scientific and donor attention as the sufferers are, children, women, or farm workers from poor backgrounds who lack the voice to demonstrate their needs. For instance, each year around 81,000 to 138,000 deaths and around 243,000 to 414,000 people become permanently disabled globally due to snake envenoming (WHO, 2022), yet they hardly grab media front headlines. Though, WHO had listed snakebite envenoming as the highest priority neglected tropical disease in 2017, it is still yet to grab the necessary highlight.
The symptoms of snake envenoming are puncture marks at the wound site and intense and severe pain at the bite site. Similarly, redness, swelling, tenderness, bruising, bleeding, or blister can be present around the bite. In more severe cases there would be tissue damage or complete destruction of the tissue in the bite area. Therefore, it can lead to limb amputation and permanent disabilities. Furthermore, snake envenoming can cause excessive bleeding, abnormal blood clotting and death. Similarly, it can cause respiratory paralysis where sufferers are unable to breathe, in most cases, this respiratory failure may lead to cause death if they do not get immediate treatment.
Antivenoms of high quality can easily prevent many deaths and other consequences of snakebites. Unfortunately, there are not many manufacturers of antivenoms. Scholars like Theakston and Warrell, Williams and Colleagues have voiced out that antivenoms are not the mainstream of pharmaceutical companies, and hence there is a chronic scarcity of antivenom availability in various regions of the world, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. This is probably because the cost and the energy required to produce it are so high, it is not economically viable for manufacturers to produce it and commercially become unsuccessful. Therefore, it is not sufficiently produced and thus the price of them is high which is not affordable for many poor people living in rural areas of Tropical countries. Nevertheless, the problem is not limited to antivenom being expensive there are countless many for example it is not readily available, requires trained healthcare professionals to administer and requires proper storage. If they are not stored in a refrigerator at the proper temperature, they have short shelf lives.
To combat the problems Tropical countries, need high-priority research on snake bites and robust data are warranted so that manufacturers are aware of the needed distribution figure for each type of antivenom. Thus, there will be enough supply of anti-venom in the rural health centres. Likewise, to solve the storage problem, an alternative method should be explored by manufacturers. Moreover, the government should subside the antivenom development and distribution programme. Finally, all health professionals who are posted in rural areas should have mandatory training in administering antivenom.
References :
THEAKSTON, R. & WARRELL, D., 2000. Crisis in snake antivenom supply for Africa. The Lancet (British Edition). 356(9247), pp.2104. Available from: 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)74319-1https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)74319-1.
WHO, 2022. Snakebite envenoming. [viewed 10/10/2022]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/snakebite-envenoming.
WILLIAMS, M., GUTIÉRREZ, J.M., HARRISON, R., WARRELL, D.A., WHITE, J., WINKEL, K.D. & GOPALAKRISHNAKONE, P., 2010. The Global Snake Bite Initiative: an antidote for snake bitehttp://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/128955.
© 2022 Dr Mukta Bhattarai Pandey (MD, PGDip Public Health, MRCP(UK), MRes)