SNAKEBITE POISONING IN BRAZIL: SHAMEFUL, UNACCEPTABLE MORBIDITY AND LETHALITY

Abstract

DOI: 10.17267/2317-3386bjmhh.v5i2.1430 In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a programme aiming to control and to eliminate a group of neglected tropical diseases1. However, the Ninth Meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG)2, that took place on 12–13 April 2016, reinforced that snakebite poisoning should not be in the selected group of the 17 neglected tropical diseases tackled by WHO programmes. However, snakebite poisoning presents typical profile of a neglected tropical disease3: it is an important cause of morbidity and mortality, predominantly among peasants and poor people living in tropical and sub-tropical areas; feasibility of control, elimination or erradication; and have received scarce investments for research for development of new medicines, diagnostics and control tools.