TY - JOUR
KW - Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
KW - Infectious Diseases
KW - Antivenom supply
AU - Habib AG
AU - Musa BM
AU - Iliyasu G
AU - Hamza M
AU - Kuznik A
AU - Chippaux J
AU - de Silva JH
AB - Snake bite envenoming (SBE) is a major public health problem in many tropical countries in the developing world [1]. Conventional antivenom (AV) remains the main therapy and has been shown to reduce mortality in observational studies in several countries within sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [2].While it is relatively available in other endemic settings in Asia and Latin America, for many years there have been major challenges with reliable supply of effective products within SSA. In 2016, the cessation of production of an excellent AV used in the region was announced, serving to galvanize the global health community into action towards the control of SBE, especially in the developing world. Since then, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized SBE as a category “A” neglected tropical disease (NTD) in 2017, adopted resolutions towards its control in 2018, and, in 2019, launched an ambitious “roadmap” towards control with the set targets of halving burden by 2030 [3,4]. In this Policy Appraisal, the challenges of AV supply are explored using the parameters of “security of supply,” a concept traditionally applied to food, energy, military, weapons, and,recently, medicines (e.g., insulin supply) [5,6]. The potential impact of expanding AV availability and supply in SSA is also be explored, building on our previous findings and cognizant of WHO Roadmap targets [4,7,8,9,10]. The financial resources needed to sustain AV supplies to achieve WHO Roadmap goals is estimated. Recommendations are offered towards attaining the targets.
BT - PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008374
IS - 8
LA - eng
N2 - Snake bite envenoming (SBE) is a major public health problem in many tropical countries in the developing world [1]. Conventional antivenom (AV) remains the main therapy and has been shown to reduce mortality in observational studies in several countries within sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [2].While it is relatively available in other endemic settings in Asia and Latin America, for many years there have been major challenges with reliable supply of effective products within SSA. In 2016, the cessation of production of an excellent AV used in the region was announced, serving to galvanize the global health community into action towards the control of SBE, especially in the developing world. Since then, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized SBE as a category “A” neglected tropical disease (NTD) in 2017, adopted resolutions towards its control in 2018, and, in 2019, launched an ambitious “roadmap” towards control with the set targets of halving burden by 2030 [3,4]. In this Policy Appraisal, the challenges of AV supply are explored using the parameters of “security of supply,” a concept traditionally applied to food, energy, military, weapons, and,recently, medicines (e.g., insulin supply) [5,6]. The potential impact of expanding AV availability and supply in SSA is also be explored, building on our previous findings and cognizant of WHO Roadmap targets [4,7,8,9,10]. The financial resources needed to sustain AV supplies to achieve WHO Roadmap goals is estimated. Recommendations are offered towards attaining the targets.
PB - Public Library of Science (PLoS)
PY - 2020
EP - e0008374
T2 - PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
TI - Challenges and prospects of snake antivenom supply in sub-Saharan Africa
UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0008374&type=printable
VL - 14
SN - 1935-2735
ER -