Biting back: The fight against snakebite

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