Tens of thousands of people will continue to die of snakebite unnecessarily unless the global health community takes action to ensure treatment and antivenom is made available, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, this week.<\/p>\n
French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, producer of Fav-Afrique, the world\u2019s only antivenom proven safe and effective to treat envenoming from different types of snakes across Sub-Saharan Africa, stopped making this product at the end of 2014. The last batch of Fav-Afrique is due to expire in June 2016, and no replacement will be available for another two years, translating into more needless death and disability.<\/p>\n
“We are now facing a real crisis,” so why do governments, pharmaceutical companies and global health bodies walk away when we need them most?\u201d said Gabriel Alcoba, snakebite medical advisor. “Imagine how frightening it must be to be bitten by a snake\u2014to feel the pain and venom spread through your body\u2014knowing it may kill you and there is no treatment available or that you can\u2019t afford to pay for it.”<\/p>\n
Snakebite is a major killer yet remains one of the world\u2019s most neglected public health emergencies, as global health actors show worryingly little interest in the issue. Each year, an estimated five million people worldwide are bitten by snakes, out of whom 100,000 die and 400,000 are permanently disabled or disfigured. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 30,000 people die from snakebite every year and an estimated 8,000 undergo amputations. The number of victims is likely to rise once existing stockpiles expire next year.<\/p>\n
“Until a replacement product to Fav-Afrique is available, we hope that Sanofi can start to generate the base material needed to produce Fav-Afrique, and then find suitable opportunities within their production capacity to refine it into antivenom,” said Julien Potet, neglected diseases advisor for MSF\u2019s Access Campaign.<\/p>\n
MSF increasingly treats snakebite in its field programs. This includes 300&ndash400 snakebite victims per year in Paoua, Central African Republic, and over 300 in Agok, South Sudan, in 2014. Many of the victims are children.<\/p>\n
Snakebite mainly affects people living in rural areas. With no health facilities nearby, and unable to afford expensive treatment, many either turn to traditional healers or don\u2019t seek care at all. This suggests that the number of victims is probably higher than officially reported.<\/p>\n
If available, antivenom treatment can cost up to US $250\u2013500 per victim, representing the equivalent of four years of salary in the countries concerned. Subsidizing antivenom costs so that patients pay little to nothing is crucial to improve access to this lifesaving treatment.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization (WHO) should play a leading role to tackle snakebite as a public health issue, but is still considering it as a “neglected condition with no formal program,” despite the high mortality levels.<\/p>\n
The global health community, donors, governments, and pharmaceutical companies should accept responsibility for their share of the neglect of snakebite as a public health emergency and take immediate, appropriate and collaborative action, said MSF.\u00a0Doctors Without Borders — (Press Release)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tens of thousands of people will continue to die of snakebite unnecessarily unless the global health community takes action to ensure treatment and antivenom is made available, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, this week. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, producer of Fav-Afrique, the world\u2019s only antivenom proven safe and effective to treat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5409,"featured_media":49080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[3024,3023,3022],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n