WHO: Halving the number of fatal snake bites

"The WHO: Halving the number of fatal snake bites,"

"the World's largest hidden health crisis. So call the world health organization the fact that snake bites are reaping a person's life every four minutes. Together with the british Wellcome Trust, they now want to halve the number of deaths by the year 2030."

"in Addition to many die, invalidiseras hundreds of thousands more of snake bites. Not rarely the poor people, whose future will be forever affected by that single bite. This is despite the fact that even the most deadly ormbetten is often possible to treat, if only it had been around trained staff and the availability of an effective serum."

"Ormexperten David Williams, who works for the WHO to collect ormgift to develop new treatments, has been bitten six times."

"– The first time it was pretty scary, because I didn't know what awaited me. It felt as if my hand had been crushed by a hammer. My last bite had been lethal if I had not had with me medical equipment, so that we could treat it. The vast majority of the victims have, however, not the life-saving luxury, " he says to BBC News."

"The biggest problem, he says, is the availability of efficient for the help to arrive. To produce for the help to arrive, is cumbersome, because you still do as they have done in the past 100 years. A little bit of poison injected into sheep or horses, that forms antibodies that are then "

"It finished the serum is so expensive, something poor people often cannot afford. In addition, it is not completely harmless to get the serum, which requires trained personnel."

"another problem is that ormbetten often occurs in rural areas where there may be a long way to the nearest sjukvårdsklinik, and even if the affected person succeeds in getting there, it is not certain that the clinic has the antidote. And even if one exists, it may not be sufficiently effective, because different snakes require different serum. Amputations are often necessary."

"– Many of those who are affected already live in poverty and the consequences of a snakebite is often that they sink even deeper down, if they even survive, " says David Williams."

"there is No 'rocket science'"

"in Order to deal with the problem, the british Wellcome Trust invested nearly one billion crowns (80 million british pounds) in order to increase the availability of effective treatments. Along with WHO is now the target of halving the number of fatal snake bites by the year 2030."

"David Williams is confident that it can. He has worked a lot to improve the treatments against snakebite in Papua New Guinea. In the year 2003 died, every fourth child who was ormbiten there. In the day die fewer than one out of every fifty children."

"– There is no 'rocket science'. It is about having access to safe and effective antidotes, trained staff and an engaged community that is aware of the issue and what you can do to prevent snake bites, and what must be done if someone gets bitten, " he says."

"About 2.7 million people are bitten by venomous snakes each year. Of them dies between 81 000 and 138 000 people. In addition, invalidiseras about 400 000, often because of the amputations."

"Snakes are usually divided into viperidae (vipers and adders) and elapidae (poison snakes). Among viperidaearterna noticeable european vipers, including the Swedish, rattle snakes and Russell's viper. Among elapidaearterna found cobras, mambas, taipaner and krait."

"the Majority of elapidaearter causing neurotoxic damage, while viperidaearter mainly cause muskelsönderfall and koagulationspåverkan."

"Among the snakes is considered to the australian the inland taipan to be the most the most venomous, because their venom can kill 1 100 people. Figures like these should be taken with a pinch of salt, because they are based on calculations made after experiments on mice. The deadliest snake is, however, Russels viper, because it causes most deaths on the indian subcontinent where it is."

"Source: WHO, Internetmedicin, with multiple"

"Adder (Vipera berus) is Sweden's only poisonous snake. Every year there are an estimated 300 the bite of the viper. Severity varies greatly, but 40 patients develop local reactions ochu002Feller toxic systemic impact that requires intensive care. Deaths have occurred but are very rare. The last known Swedish case is more than 20 years back in time. Treatment with the serum is the most effective way to limit the damage at the huggormsbett."

"the Production of huggormsserum is complex and involves purified antibodies which are formed by sheep or horses. The cost per dose is approximately sek 25 000 (2017)."

"Source: Journal"