On May 24th The Word Health Assembly, approved an initiative promoted by the governments of Costa Rica and Colombia, along with the support of the Clodomiro Picado Institute (ICP) branch of the University of Costa Rica. The ICP aims to take global action to bring down the number of deaths caused by snakebites.

According to the documentary “Minutes to Die: Snakebite – The World’s Ignored Health Crisis“ , every year 2.6 million cases of snakebites by venomous snakes are reported worldwide, in Costa Rica there are reports of an average 600 people affected every year, out of these, only 3 die, but worldwide over 125 thousand lives are lost and some 400 thousand people will suffer the consequences of the venom for the rest of their lives sometimes with amputations or a disfigured limb.

The World Health Assembly through this new resolution which was supported by 31 countries, will not include snakebites to their programs with the purpose of developing initiatives in conjunction with different international actors in a frame of cooperation and solidarity.

“Delegates agreed a resolution that aims to reduce the number of people around the world who are either killed or are physically or mentally disabled by snakebite. An estimated 1.8 – 2.7 million people are bitten by venomous snakes each year, with between 81 000 and 138 000 people dying as a result. For every person who dies following a snakebite, another four or five are left with disabilities such as blindness, restricted mobility or amputation, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Snakebite overwhelmingly affects people from poor agricultural and herding communities and was categorized by WHO last year as a high-priority neglected tropical disease. Poor prevention, health worker training, diagnosis and treatment of cases of snakebite, as well as a lack of available tools, are all holding up progress on addressing the global burden of the disease.

Acknowledging the urgent need to improve access to safe, effective and affordable antivenoms for snakebite, delegates urged WHO to accelerate and coordinate global efforts to control snakebite ‘envenoming’ – the life-threatening disease that follows the bite of a venomous snake”, stated the World Health Assembly during the celebration of the seventy-first assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

In Costa Rica the ICP-UCR has dedicated in the past 50 to save the lives of victims of snakebites in Costa Rica as well as other 14 countries with social vulnerabilities through the production and export of high-quality antivenoms which are used in Latin America, Africa, Oceania and Sri-Lanka.