Snakebite envenoming is one of the world’s most neglected disease. It kills between 81,000 and 138,000 people a year and leaves many more with life-changing disabilities. Snakebite is one of the 20 WHO Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) included on the Roadmap agreed by Member States in 2019, with the aim of substantially reducing the damage and suffering caused by these diseases by 2030.

Dr Alan Pereira has been a Medical Coordinator for MSF in Ethiopia for the past year. During that time, he’s been involved in many medical activities including supporting the project teams with treating patients with snakebite in our programmes. He has also been working with the national authorities to develop a nationwide plan to tackle snakebite. In this interview, Dr Pereira shared his experiences with us.

“The changing climate has meant that the rainy season often causes floods here, which drive the snakes out of their burrows. People wading through the waters are really vulnerable to being bitten by a snake, especially as many only have sandals or go barefoot”, writes Dr Paul Snape about his experience treating people for snakebite in South Sudan. 

Snakebite is just one of many so called ‘Neglected Tropical Diseases’, or NTDs, that receive far too little global attention given the vast impact they have on communities around the world.

Matthieu Chevallier, MSF Access Campaign’s Global Health Advocacy Officer, tries to unpack in seven key points, the different facets of this gross neglect. The more he looks at it, the more he begins to wonder: is it the disease itself, or is it the victims that we turn away from?

Diagnosing TB in young children is particularly challenging. MSF has been working with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health since 2020 to improve the diagnosis and treatment of TB in children, and, in 2022, started implementing the use of new tools to help diagnose TB.

“By using the new tools available, by bringing treatment closer to patients, and also by providing nutritional support in the DOT sites to children who are undernourished, we have been able to enrol and successfully treat significantly more patients,” says MSF medical team leader Jobin Joseph.