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WHO unveils plan to tackle global snakebite ’emergency’
GENEVA, May 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The World Health Organization on Thursday
unveiled a new strategy to dramatically cut deaths and injuries from
snakebites, warning a dearth of antivenoms could soon spark a “public health
emergency”.
Each year, nearly three million people are bitten by poisonous snakes, with
an estimated 81,000-138,000 deaths. Another 400,000 survivors suffer
permanent disabilities and other after-effects, according to WHO figures.
In a new report, the UN health agency urged the international community to
take steps to address the problem, which it warned had long been dangerously
under-estimated and neglected.
WHO, which two years ago categorised “snakebite envenoming” as a Neglected
Tropical Disease, presented a strategy aimed at cutting snakebite-related
deaths and disabilities in half by 2030.
Snake venom can cause paralysis that stops breathing, bleeding disorders
that can lead to fatal haemorrhage, irreversible kidney failure and tissue
damage that can cause permanent disability and limb loss.
Most snakebite victims live in the world’s tropical and poorest regions,
and children are worse affected due to their smaller body size.
An important part of the strategy is to significantly boost production of
quality antivenoms, WHO said.
Production of life-saving antivenoms has been abandoned by a number of
companies since the 1980s, and availability of effective and safe products is
disastrously low in Africa especially, with a similar crisis also looming in
Asia.
“Without urgent reshaping of the market, greater regulatory control and
other measures, a public health emergency is imminent,” the WHO report
warned.
The UN agency called for “the restoration of a sustainable market for
snakebite treatment”, insisting on the need for a 25-percent increase in the
number of competent manufacturers by 2030.
WHO said it planned a pilot project to create a global antivenom stockpile.
The strategy also called for integrating snakebite treatment and response
into national health plans in affected countries, including better training
of health personnel and educating communities.
The Doctors Without Borders charity praised the strategy, saying it “could
be a turning point” in tackling snakebite poisoning, which it said “kills
more people than any other disease on WHO’s Neglected Tropical Diseases
list.”
“The toll that snakebite envenoming takes on people around the world truly
represents a hidden epidemic,” MSF Tropical Medicine Advisor Gabriel Alcoba
said in a statement.
BSS/AFP/ARS/2036 hrs