Citation
(2009), "A hazard we had not worried about before", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 18 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2009.07318bab.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
A hazard we had not worried about before
Article Type: News items From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 18, Issue 2
About 20,000 people die and 421,000 are poisoned from snakebites each year around the world, especially in South and Southeast Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa. Anuradhani Kasturiratne of the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka and colleagues examined the literature and country mortality data maintained by the United Nations.
Their best estimate from the data is the 20,000 deaths, but they say it could be as high as 94,000 deaths a year and 1.8 million envenomings. India had the highest incidence, with 11,000 deaths and 81,000 poisonings from snakebites. The study was published in the online open-access journal PLOS Medicine (medicine.plosjournals.org/).
Jean-Philippe Chippaux, also writing in PLOS Medicine, says the only specific treatment for snakebite is antivenom, but it is frequently unavailable. In the 1980s in Africa, he says, 150,000 to 200,000 doses of antivenom were sold annually. Current sales have fallen to 20,000 doses a year. The price of antivenom has risen by a factor of ten over the last 20 years, Chippaux says.