About The Snake Bite Program
The Snake Bite Program owned by Aishah Pelley who works with consultant Tim Carrol. This new initiative aims to educate and provide public health programs to the local, indigenous and international communities about snake bite awareness, treatment and prevention.
HISTORY OF THE SNAKE BITE PROGRAM
Established in 2022 by Aishah Pelley, The Snake Bite program was created as a business to protect both snakes and people. Aishah had been working with Tim Carroll and her dad Mark Pelley for some time on this project until it was ready to move forward. In October 2022, The Snake Bite Program occupied 2/3 Inglis Street Diamond Creek and has commenced operations.
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Aishah's focus is to work cooperatively with the WHO, not for profit businesses, scientists and researchers, as well as private enterprises to achieve three main objectives:
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1. To develop affordable snake antivenoms to be made readily available to 3rd world countries to reduce both deaths as well as the impact/injuries of snake bites in areas where there is an identified need.
2. To promote awareness and understanding of snakes leading to a reduction in snake bite incidents
3. Being of indigenous background herself, to promote an understanding of snakes in Australian Aboriginal culture
TROPIC SNAKE BITE EPIDEMIC
Snake bites are considered by the World Health Organisation to be a tropical epidemic. The issue is that most of the disease burden and death from snake bites can be completely prevented. Statistics about snake bites include:
• 5.4 million snake bites occur each year particularly in impoverished nations.
• Up to 2.7 million cases of envenomation occur annually requiring medical treatment.
• Approximately 138,000 deaths occur from snake bites mostly in communities without access to antivenom .
• Three times this number of persons who survive suffer from amputations and other life altering permanent disabilities.
• Most envenomations occur in Africa, Asia and Latin America affecting women, children and farmers in poor rural communities in low or middle income countries.
• The highest burden is found in countries with weak health care systems and sparce medical resources.
• When children are bitten by snakes, without proper treatment, they could be killed or permanently disabled for life.
• More people die from snake bites than war annually.
“The large majority of the victims of snakebite are politically voiceless: subsistence farmers and the rural poor, displaced populations, and children. It is up to the international community to be their voice.”
Kofi Annan Foundation, February 2017
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WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
The World Health Organization has declared that snake bites are a completely preventable tropical epidemic and a neglected public health issue. In June 2017, the World Health Organization formally listed snake bite envenomation as the “Highest priority neglected tropical disease”.
The WHO since established a “Snakebite Envenoming Working Group” with the goal to develop a roadmap to snake bites. The strategy focuses to reduce morbidity and disabilities caused by snake bites by 50% by 2030 with the key objectives of:
• Empowering and engaging communities.
• Ensuring safe and effective treatments (antivenoms) are available
• Improving health care systems
• Increasing partnerships, coordination and resources.
The WHO aims to work closely with a range of international partners to ensure successful implementation of this road map with large capacity building projects already being launched. There is a particular focus from WHO on community engagement and specific interventions to improve access to WHO recommended antivenoms, improved data collection and national health plans for snake bites. WHO has four strategic objectives between 2019 – 2030 spread over three phases investing a total of $136,760,000US ($210,347,137AUD) into this project.
Our Goals
To develop affordable snake antivenoms to be made readily available to 3rd world countries
To promote awareness and understanding of snakes & reptiles leading to a reduction in snake bite incidents
Being of indigenous background herself, to promote an understanding of snakes in Australian Aboriginal culture
Why are snake bites such a problem?
The World Health Organisation have identified that health systems in poorer countries where snake bites are prevalent, lack the resources, infrastructure and capacity to collect sound statistical data on snake bites. They indicate that most cases of snake bites:
• Go unreported to health ministries and clinics
• Hospitals and primary care facilities only see victims that can afford treatment.
• Treatment seeking behaviour of snake bite victims is limited due to cultural beliefs on snake bites and the implementation of traditional medicines
• Those that die from snake bites are not reported statistically.
• Research into the under reporting of snake bites presents universal trends that make it difficult to accurately determine the exact number of snake bite deaths.
• As such, need for antivenom is underestimated and production levels do not sufficiently reach the need of snake bite victims globally.
In most of these countries despite the fact that a snake bite is an acute medical emergency, Populations do not have the financial resources or knowledge to treat snake bites and instead use traditional ill effective treatments to treat snake bites such as:
o Drinking alcohol
o Rubbing a black stone against the bite.
o Sucking out the venom
o Applying “home” or “Traditional” remedies which are completely ineffective.
• People attempt to kill snakes which increases the likelihood of snake bites occurring.
• There is very poor understanding of snakes and significant misinformation about snakes across different cultures.
Internationally, according to the World Health Organization, the “low demand” due to lack of affordability or poor statistics of snake bites have caused several international manufacturers to cease production creating a limited supply significantly pushing up the cost of antivenoms. This further suppresses demand to the extent that antivenom availability has either significantly declined or otherwise made completely unavailable. Compounding this, fake antivenoms have entered the markets undermining confidence. To date, Australia and CSL produce the best antivenom in the world.
The World Health Organization created a program in 2015 to evaluate the potential safety and effectiveness of current antivenom products in Sub Saharan Africa that produced informed guidance on which antivenoms were best suited to needs. Following, a request by several United Nation member states
Empowering and engaging communities primarily includes:
• Encourage better education about risks of snake bites and holistic treatments.
• Improve understanding of care seeking behaviour.
• Improve understanding of snakes.
• Community participation with support from local leaders, civil society, health and social activists to improve snake bite envenoming outcomes.
• Researching socio-cultural economic factors that affect outcomes and tailor strategies accordingly.
Ensuring Safe, Effective Treatment includes:
• Access to good quality antivenoms and all other aspects of medical treatment that may be necessary.
• Improving control and regulation of antivenoms.
• Introduce prequalification for antivenoms.
• Investment in innovation in new therapeutics.
• Healthcare worker training and education.
• Improved clinical decision making treatment, recovery and rehabilitation
Strengthening Health Systems includes:
• Improving primary health care services
• Facilitating research and policy development to reduce treatment
• Improving infrastructure and health care facilities.
• Including snake bite envenoming in national health plans
• Increasing surveillance and statistical data of snake bites and its burden .
• Fostering research into epidemiology, clinical outcomes and therapeutics for snake bite envenoming.
Increasing partnerships, coordination and resources includes:
• Supporting governance and leadership
• Promoting advocacy, effective communication and productive engagement.
• Enhancing integration and coordination
• Building strong regional partnerships and alliances
• Coordinating data management and analysis
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At The Snake Bite Program, we aim to work with the World Health Organisation to promote and strengthen health systems, effective treatments and improved understanding about snakes.