Costa Rica made a proposal for the treatment of snake bites, which was classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an untreated disease.
It entered the List of Neglected Tropical Diseases in category A, that is, among the diseases with the highest impact on global health.
This will allow the development and implementation of a strategy aimed at controlling and reducing the problem of ophidian accidents worldwide.
Annually, almost 2.5 million people around the world are affected by this problem. About 120 thousand of them die, and 300 thousand are left with some kind of physical or psychological consequence.
Since 2016, the Ministry of Health, the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica in Geneva and the Clodomiro Picado Institute of the University of Costa Rica (ICP-UCR) have been able to submit a formal request to the WHO with strong technical and scientific support. This proposal was also supported by two international agencies: the Global Snake Bite Initiative (GSI) and the International Health Action (IHA), as well as the sponsorship of 17 countries in America, Africa and Asia.
María Esther Anchía, Minister of Health, said that this ratifies the contribution of Costa Rica to a public health problem,
this would also allow for statistical information that facilitates the making of timely and assertive decisions in terms of training, prevention and treatment.”
Albero Alape, director of ICP-UCR, said that the early and coordinated intervention of the various institutions in our country have saved almost 600 lives of Costa Rican victims of ophidian accidents each year and distributed the antidotes to poor countries that otherwise would not have access to this essential medicine.
The next step for national organizations will be to undertake further coordinated actions to prepare a motion for a resolution to be submitted to the WHO Executive Board in January 2018. This document will seek to commit WHO to undertake specialized programs that favor proper care of poisoning cases caused by snake bites.