US $ 100 million injected into a "hidden health crisis" of snake bites

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) – A global health trust is to inject £ 80 million into more modern and effective snakebite treatments, a "hidden health crisis" that kills 120,000 people a year and hurts thousands of others.

The project, launched Thursday by the UK-based Wellcome Trust for Health, aims to improve the global supply of antivenoms – the only treatment currently available for snake bites – and to develop new, more effective drugs for to come up.

"The treatment of snakebites relies heavily on a 100-year-old process," said David Lalloo, professor and director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Britain.

A glaring lack of funding for scientific research has seriously limited progress in this area of ​​medicine, leaving thousands of deaths unnecessarily, Lalloo told reporters at a briefing.

Philip Price, a Snake Bite Science expert at Wellcome, said that venomous snake bites killed about 120,000 people a year – mostly in the poorest communities of Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. South America's rural – and called it "a hidden health crisis".

An additional 400,000 people suffer life-threatening injuries, such as amputations, which can push already poor families into even greater poverty, he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to publish a "snake bite roadmap" later this month, which will reduce by half the number of deaths and disabilities caused by snake bite bites. here 2030.

Current treatments – antivenom – are made by injecting horses with a relatively innocuous small amount of snake venom and then drawing their blood to treat humans – a 19th century technology with no common safety or efficacy standards. .

This technique also involves high risks of contamination and side effects, according to experts, and means that victims must be treated in hospitals, sometimes far from rural areas where most bites occur. Treatment is often too expensive for victims and often too late to save.

In addition to these problems, there is a shortage of antivenoms that will suit the most exposed populations. In Africa, for example, up to 90% of available antivenoms may be ineffective.

Mike Turner, Scientific Director of Wellcome, said the need for progress was clear and urgent.

"The snake bite is – or should be – a curable problem," he said. "People will always be bitten by venomous snakes, there is no reason for so many people to die."