The chain viper is responsible for over 30 percent of all snake bites in India, of which 30 percent in turn are fatal. | Image: zVg

According to the WHO, snakebites are a neglected tropical disease, and one of the deadliest: they kill over 100,000 people every year. There are also other consequences that remain largely unexplored, e.g., the health problems suffered by survivors and the loss of livestock. The SNAKE-BYTE project of the University of Geneva, aided by partners in Nepal, has now calculated that some 200,000 ‘Disability Adjusted Life Years’ (DALYs) are lost to snakebites every year in Nepal alone. Their study also suggests possible interventions. For example, women are more affected by the consequences of snakebites than men. The epidemiologist Sara Babo Martins believes that this could be because women have poorer access to health facilities. The research team is now testing this hypothesis with further analyses.

S. Babo Martins et al.: Assessment of the effect of snakebite on health and socioeconomic factors using a One Health perspective in the Terai region of Nepal: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet Global Health (2022)