Original version

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

Health Check

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Health Check: Biting back: The fight against snakebite

Magazines & Reviews

Biting back: The fight against snakebite

2023/02/15 GMT

BBC World Service - Health Check, Biting back: The fight against snakebite

What is being done to tackle the issue of venomous snakebites?

Snake bites: Who is affected and what is being done to tackle the issue?

Venomous snakebites are responsible for up to 150,000 deaths a year around the world – and they also leave around half a million survivors with life-changing injuries, including amputations and disfigurement. 

In this week’s Health Check we investigate why snakebite still disproportionately affects poorer, more rural communities, and what is being done to tackle the problem.

We’ll talk to a mother in Kenya whose little girl was bitten by a snake not once, but twice, and to a doctor about how it feels to save lives. We’ll hear how anti-venoms are checked and how in many cases they are too expensive to afford and how there are not always enough supplies. And even when they are available some don’t work well.

Smitha Mundasad also visits the Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions in Liverpool, England, where she gets to see a snake being “milked” for its venom – and finds out how new and improved anti-venoms are being created, all with a little help from camels. 

Join us on a journey crossing continents, from the front line of the fight against snakebite to the hunt for new therapies.

Image: Herpetologist Edouard Crittenden “milking” a snake for its venom.

Presenter: Smitha Mundasad
Producers: Gerry Holt & Julia Ravey

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Health Check

Biting back: The fight against snakebite

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service