
Africa braced for snakebite crisis - nkurz
http://www.nature.com/news/africa-braced-for-snakebite-crisis-1.18357
======
DavidAdams
My son was bitten by a copperhead snake (a viper) near Washington DC. He
received a very large dose of poison into a very small hand, and ran a high
risk of losing his arm without proper treatment. He received 14 doses of anti-
venom, $70,000 worth, and recovered fully. Two years later, we found out that
the company that made the anti-venom for copperheads had ceased production,
since it wasn't cost-effective. My wife blogged about it:
[http://www.crazyus.com/2010/07/19/washington-dc-snakes-
once-...](http://www.crazyus.com/2010/07/19/washington-dc-snakes-once-we-got-
off-the-plane/)

~~~
hga
Are you sure that anti-venom didn't get outcompeted? This seems to be the
current treatment of choice: [http://crofab.com/](http://crofab.com/)

Side note: any drug the production of which starts with a step like "milk
venom from four species of snakes" is inherently expensive.

------
linkregister
> In 2010, the French drug firm Sanofi Pasteur in Lyon ceased production of
> Fav-Afrique, an antibody serum that reduces the quantity of venom
> circulating in the blood of a snakebite victim.

Here's the stated reason;
[http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/09/07/doct...](http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/09/07/doctors-
without-borders-snakebite-treatment-running-out) :

A spokesman for Sanofi Pasteur said the pharmaceuticals company was driven out
of the market by competitors selling cheaper products, and it announced in
2010 it would stop making anti-venom. Those cheaper drugs are often seen as
less effective.

"It's very strange that the relevant stakeholders are only realizing this
problem five years later," said Alain Bernal, a Sanofi Pasteur spokesman. He
said the company has offered to transfer the anti-venom technology to others.

...

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency has a staffer working on the
snakebite problem but donors have largely been uninterested. He said lack of
snakebite treatment was also due to doctors deciding not to use anti-venoms
because they were made from the wrong snake.

------
aaron695
I was blown away when I first learned snakes killed so many people.

3rd most dangerous animal (Mosquito then human)

[http://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-
Mosquito...](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquito-
Week)

------
nikmobi
> We were not even sure if it was a venomous snake at this point. We tried
> calling 911 and could not get through

I'm surprised this doesn't stick out to more people, but I had the same
experience in SF. I called 911, and hung up after what seemed like being on
hold for 7 minutes.

~~~
switch007
That is unbelievable! The UK has the world's oldest emergency telephone
service. The service is operated by British Telecom and I think most people
have an expectation of the call being answered in mere seconds, every single
time.

(Although what however has changed dramatically during the current and past
two governments is large increases in response times to an emergency.)

~~~
throwaway049
BT connects your emergency call to your nearest control centre, but if that
has no lines free it connects to an available line at any other control centre
in the UK. The call handler then relays your call manually to the appropriate
centre as soon as they can get through.

------
ck2
It occurs to me that someday next century we'll have "chemical" printers that
can synthesize drugs on demand. Maybe the hospitals will get them first for
cost and legal reasons but eventually just like 3d printers, there will be a
hobbyist element.

~~~
freehunter
As long as you can synthesize illegal drugs, as long as you can synthesize
patented drugs, there will be no open consumer market for chemical printers.

~~~
ck2
Um, you can copy things with 3D printers and even make weapons, they are still
legal (so far).

Initially they might have chemical printers in hospital labs/pharmacies for
emergency use.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Affordable 3D printers won't be good enough to copy most consumer goods for a
while yet. And 3D printed weapons are shit--they're basically useless except
for sticking it to the Man. That means that 3D printers have many more
"legitimate" uses than illegal ones, so for the most part they are accepted,
now; as they grow more capable, that foundation will see them grandfathered
in, for the most part.

For a home chemical factory like you're discussing, synthesizing drugs
illegally would be by far the most popular use case. I'm sure someone would
think of something legit to do with it, but it would be an edge case. They
would never be allowed to get a foothold, legally.

------
nkurz
Here's an older but more in depth article on snakebite antivenom in Africa:
[http://www.snakebiteinitiative.org/?page_id=696](http://www.snakebiteinitiative.org/?page_id=696)

I found the numbers of people who die each year from snakebite to be
staggering. It's around 125,000 deaths per year, with millions of serious
injuries:
[http://www.snakebiteinitiative.org/?page_id=577](http://www.snakebiteinitiative.org/?page_id=577)

~~~
chestnut-tree
The BBC had an article on snakebites a few days ago. It states

 _" Snakes get closer to humans and cause more damage and more deaths than any
other venomous animal, including spiders, scorpions and jellyfish.

Each year, up to five million people worldwide are estimated to be bitten by
snakes. Out of those, around 100,000 die and 400,000 are left disabled or
disfigured by their injuries.

But the numbers could be even larger - because many of the worst-affected
countries don't keep data on snakebites and research into this problem is
scarce."_

Article: The amazing science behind fatal snake bites
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34214029](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34214029)

