More People Die From Venomous Snakebites Each Year Than Have Ever Died from Ebola

[Judi Lynn]

0 September 2023

In low- and middle-income nations, snakebite envenoming is more deadly than almost any other neglected tropical disease.

Cassandra Willyard

Inside a two-story brick building, not far from the orchids and iguanas of the botanical garden in Medellín, Colombia, wildlife technician Jorge Asprilla demonstrates how to extract venom from a snake. First, he uses a metal hook with an extended handle to snag a five-foot-long pit viper. Then he has to grab its head without getting bitten—a skill he has perfected after working for more than 25 years with dozens of venomous snake species.

Soon Asprilla has the snake’s spade-shaped head firmly in his grasp and its muscular body pinned between his legs. The snake in his grip is known locally as a mapaná, and this species is responsible for most of the snakebites in Colombia. Asprilla has been bitten twice since he started working at the University of Antioquia’s serpentarium, but he isn’t one to elaborate on the experience. “Duele mucho,” he says. (“It hurts a lot.”)

Venomous snakes bite about 5,000 people a year in Colombia; between 20 and 40 of those bitten die from their injuries. And although Colombia has the ability to produce and distribute antivenom—the antidote for venomous snakebites—about 20 percent of the victims who need antivenom don’t receive it. Globally as many as 2.7 million people are envenomed by snakes every year. Of these, up to 400,000 are permanently disabled, and estimates suggest that 81,000 to 138,000 die. Venomous snakebites may receive less attention from health organizations than contagious viruses and bacterial infections, but their toxic effects make them one of the deadliest neglected tropical diseases.

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Asprilla moves the hook into the mapaná’s mouth, just behind its pallid, curved fangs. As he massages the snake’s head with his hand, a bead of gold venom oozes out of a tooth. This liquid is responsible for both life and death: it can kill a human in days, and it can be used to produce the antivenom that might save someone by counteracting a venomous bite. Despite the existence of such antivenom, however, people continue to die. Asprilla’s work is part of a project aiming to change that.

More:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02617-2