Project: Tackling the global snakebite crisis
Tackling the global snakebite crisis: Opportunities for participatory approaches to ecology and health in the Digital Era
“Snakebites are killing more people than Ebola and landmines”
Snakebite is the second neglected tropical killer being responsible for over 100,000 human deaths and 400,000 victims of disability and disfigurement globally every year.
Snakebite mostly affects poor and rural communities in developing and emerging countries, where both snakebite is more frequent and access to life-saving healthcare (e.g. antivenom) is limited or absent. Sub-Saharan Africa and South and South-East Asia are among the most affected areas of the world, but China is also suffering with more than 4,000 deaths every year.
Unfortunately, snakebite is severely neglected by international and national policy makers and donors, pharmaceutical industry, media and even academia. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) refers to a “public health emergency gone under the radar” stressing on the lack of reliable reporting systems and a major underestimation of the global burden of snakebite, which makes this not only a humanitarian crisis but also a crisis of data and scientific knowledge.
Pierre-Yves Bernard/MSFYou will have the opportunity to work collaboratively with experts from academia and international organizations based in Geneva and beyond:
- Institute of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva
- Division of Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine, University Hospitals of Geneva
- Enviro-Space Lab, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of Geneva
- Neglected Tropical Diseases Group, World Health Organization
- Neglected Tropical Diseases Group, Doctors Without Borders
In Partnership with
