WHO Vows to Intensify Fight Against Snakebite
Scourge kills tens of thousands of people a year; 192 countries back resolution to improve treatment and prevention efforts
Governments around the world plan to strike back harder at snakebite, a scourge that kills tens of thousands of people a year. A World Health Organization (WHO) raises the priority of improving snakebite prevention as well as access to effective and affordable anti-venom. The measure was by 192 countries in late May. The WHO estimates that venomous snakes bite 1.8 million to 2.7 million people a year, killing between 81,000 and 138,000 of them. "For every person who dies following a snakebite, another four or five are left with disabilities such as blindness, restricted mobility or amputation, and post-traumatic stress disorder," the WHO reports. Snakebite envenoming is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, the WHO . People in rural, impoverished areas there and elsewhere are most at risk, challenged by poor or remote health systems, and limited diagnoses, ambulances and other emergency care – including reliable anti-venom. In sub-Saharan Africa, just 2 percent of people bitten by venomous snakes have access to appropriate anti-venom,  Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders. "We need to know better the data [on] where most cases take place," said Julien Potet, MSF’s policy adviser on neglected tropical diseases, speaking by phone last week from Geneva. "We need to better regulate the quality of the anti-venoms, to distribute them accordingly in the areas of highest need" and to make them affordable, "because otherwise they [patients] will not be able to access the product." Potet pointed out that French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur has , the only serum known to effectively treat bites from some sub-Saharan African snakes. The last batches of the company’s serum expired in June 2016. Production of the anti-venom takes roughly two years, the in-Pharma Technologist website . It said the pharmaceutical company cited manufacturing costs, and competition from cheaper but less effective treatments, in its decision to stop producing Fav-Afrique. MSF has estimated that the anti-venom costs a patient $250 to $500 for treatment. Sanofi Pasteur  in January that it had agreed to divest its anti-venom immunoglobulin range, which includes Fav-Afrique, to the U.K.-based firm MicroPharm. "We hope this resolution will trigger some actions to better regulate the market ... and to prioritize and subsidize" anti-venom production and distribution, Potet said. "Now we need to make sure this resolution is translated into a concrete, fully funded action plan," he added. A WHO working group is expected to offer recommendations on how governments can bolster data collection, training for health workers, access to care and support for effective anti-venoms, to Devex, a website aimed at the global development community. It said the group’s report is expected by Nov. 30. Devex also reported that David Williams, the group’s chair, estimated "about $6 million was needed in 2018-2019 to prepare the recommendations, improve surveillance, deliver antivenoms, and address other technical and medical challenges." .