India’s snakebite crisis is killing tens of thousands every year

BBC:

Devendra, who was a farmer in India, still remembers the moment a snake sank its fangs into his leg while he was picking mulberry leaves.

“I went to the hospital four days after I was bitten, when the pain became unbearable. But the delay cost me my leg,” he says in a short film released by Global Snakebite Taskforce (GST), an initiative working to reduce deaths and injuries by snakebites.

But Devendra is still among the lucky few to have survived. According to the federal government, around 50,000 Indians are killed by snakebites each year – roughly half of all deaths worldwide. Some estimates suggest the toll could be even higher: between 2000 and 2019, India may have seen as many as 1.2 million deaths, an average of 58,000 per year, a 2020 study said.

Now, a new report by GST has found that 99% of healthcare workers in India face challenges administering antivenom – the life-saving antibodies that neutralise toxins in venom. Researchers surveyed 904 medical professionals across India, Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria, the countries most affected by snakebites, and found similar barriers: poor infrastructure, limited access to antivenom and insufficient training.

Nearly half of the professionals reported that delays in treatment had led to serious complications in their patients, including amputations, surgeries or lifelong mobility problems.

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally listed snakebite envenoming or poisoning as a “highest priority neglected tropical disease” because of the high number of deaths caused by it. According to WHO, an estimated 5.4 million people worldwide are bitten by snakes each year and more than 100,000 die from annually.

It also states that snakebites disproportionately affect poor rural communities in low and middle-income countries.