Snake bites cause one death every 5 minutes

GENEVA.- The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that poisonous snake bites They cause one death every 5 minutes somewhere in the world.

He specified that the death figures are from 81,410 to 137,880 per year and his objective is halve the number of victims before 2030.

Children more exposed to snake bites

Within the framework of the international day to raise awareness about this situation, on September 19, David Williams, WHO expert on snakes and bites, warned that children are the most exposed.

And he specified that more than a third of all fatalities They are less than twenty years old.

For every death, three people bitten by a poisonous snake are left with long term disability or permanently, which includes cases in which one of the limbs has to be amputated.

Where do most venomous snake bites occur?

Las poisonous snakes They live in large regions of the world, such as rainforests or deserts, and most bites are recorded in low- or middle-income countries from Asia, Africa or Latin America.

An incident of this type can drag many of the survivors into a greater poverty due to the high cost of treatment.

The case of India is especially alarmingwhere an average of 58,000 deaths are recorded each year, according to WHO data.

Strategy against snakebite

As part of your strategy to reduce cases of snake bitesthe WHO launched a program to evaluate the effectiveness of marketed antidotes.

Likewise, a community model of acquisition, supply and distribution of treatments which will be tested for the first time in West Africa next year.

The WHO anticipated that climate change will most likely have an impact on the distribution of snake populations.

Some species will be forced in the not too distant future to move to environments where will come into contact with humans.

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