Kenya seeks to develop antivenoms to reduce snake bite deaths
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00:00Esther is attending her daily chores, like making tea.
00:05She learned to carry her crutches after she lost one leg to a snake bite a few years ago.
00:11Health facilities in her vicinity lacked the necessary medication to treat the snake bite.
00:17The residents here live in constant fear as dangerous snakes move closer to their farm, hurting their livestock.
00:24Many chickens are being killed by snakes looking for food, and we can't eat those chickens.
00:33The snakes also bite donkeys and cows.
00:36We don't know how to treat the cow because we don't have the right medicine.
00:43About 20,000 people are bitten by snakes annually in Kenya, resulting in 4,000 deaths.
00:50Others experience paralysis or suffer from various health complications.
00:55The country imports antivenom from Mexico and India, but 50% of them are ineffective,
01:01as they're mostly region-specific, meaning those produced from venoms in one region
01:06might not effectively treat snake bites in a different region.
01:10Kenya is now actively working on developing its own.
01:15The current conventional antivenoms are quite old and suffer certain inherited deficiencies.
01:22So by investing in the research and development of these new snake bite therapies,
01:27they will have certain better properties as compared to the current antivenoms.
01:31We then hope to improve the management and the outcomes of snake bite sessions.
01:36As climate change becomes more erratic and snake bite cases increase,
01:41the lab is also collaborating with communities to improve knowledge on snake bite prevention,
01:46how to handle snakes and how to perform first aid on victims.