Crisis in snake antivenom supply for Africa – Theakston & Warrell, 2000
- In Africa snake bites cause hundreds of deaths and thousands of disabilities, sadly there is a shortage of antivenom thus the injuries and death are only expected to increase. Africa has 3 main antivenom producers known as SAIMR (South African Institute for Medical Research), Aventis Pasteur in France and Behringwerke in Germany. But currently the German lab has stopped producing antivenom, Aventis hasn’t produced any for Africa’s use and SAIMR went private which means antivenom will be extremely expensive.
- To make matters worse there are is use of fake antivenom, the wrong antivenom used for the wrong species and just nonspecific antivenom (broad spectrum) which is ineffective against certain species.
- In turn to help the situation a UK company called Therapeutic Antibodies tried to produce cheaper antivenoms for less developed countries, and a movement began which included help from University of Oxford (Centre for Tropical Medicine) and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. They immunized sheep with Nigerian venomous snakes. The funny part is that now this company has merged with a new one and has abandoned the commitment to help those in need, selling new rattlesnake antivenom for 6000 quid (so jokes). Unfortunately even if antivenom was sold for 3 quid per treatment, that might still not be affordable to some. If cognitive welfare and venom extraction process impact the venom composition or yield of venom, this could potentially help in manufacturing medication and antivenom.
- This paper encourages the manufacturing of geographically relevant antivenom
Al3xandria 