Of the 24 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and conditions listed by WHO, snakebite is among the top killers [1]. Tens of thousands of people die each year as a result of snakebite envenoming, with close to 50,000 deaths in India alone [2] and up to 32,000 in sub-Saharan Africa [3]. Yet there are few sources of effective, safe, and affordable antivenoms. The regions that bear the highest snake...

BACKGROUND Envenoming resulting from snakebites is an important public health problem in many tropical and subtropical countries. Few attempts have been made to quantify the burden, and recent estimates all suffer from the lack of an objective and reproducible methodology. In an attempt to provide an accurate, up-to-date estimate of the scale of the global problem, we developed a new method to ...

The case of a man bitten by a South American rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) and who developed an abscess at the site of the bite is reported. Abcesses are a rare complication of this type of envenoming, possibly due to the lack of a strong cytotoxic action of Crotalus durissus venom.

Snake bite envenoming is a disease with potential serious neurological complications. We report a case of an adolescent who was bitten by a rattlesnake and developed bilateral posterior circulation stroke. The rattlesnake was later identified as being Crotalus durissus terrificus. Stroke was probably due to toxic vasculitis or toxin-induced vascular spasm and endothelial damage.

Despite important implications for human health, distribution, abundance and behaviour of most medically relevant snakes remain poorly understood. Such data deficiencies hamper efforts to characterise the causal pathways snakebite envenoming prioritise management options in areas at greatest risk. We estimated spatial patterns seven snake species from Sri Lanka, a hotspot, combined them with in...

BACKGROUND The optimization of snakebite management and the use of antivenom depend greatly on the knowledge of the venom's composition as well as its pharmacokinetics. To date, however, pharmacokinetic reports on cobra venoms and their toxins are still relatively limited. In the present study, we investigated the pharmacokinetics of Naja sumatrana (Equatorial spitting cobra) venom and its majo...

Poisoning is a common medico social problem now a days. The scale of the problem is enormous due to the increased incidence of morbidity and mortality (1). Poisoning is a significant global public health problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data in 2004 an estimated 346 000 people died worldwide from unintentional poisoning of which 91% occurred in lowand middle-income coun...

INTRODUCTION The psychological impact of snakebite on its victims, especially possible late effects, has not been systematically studied. OBJECTIVES To assess delayed somatic symptoms, depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and impairment in functioning, among snakebite victims. METHODS The study had qualitative and quantitative arms. In the quantitative arm, 88 persons...