Scientists say they are making progress on a new way to treat one of the world's deadliest and most neglected health threats. According to the report, researchers say a revolutionary treatment for snake bites is advancing, with scientists working on an oral pill that can be taken to prevent venom from spreading. The work aims to offer a faster and simpler response than current methods.
The scale of the problem underlines why the research matters. According to the report, more than five million people are bitten by snakes every year, and around 138,000 of them will die from the injury. Snakebite is described as one of the world's most neglected diseases, which has left treatment lagging for decades.
The current standard of care has changed little over a very long period. According to the report, for more than a century the treatment has barely changed, relying on horses being injected with snake venom so that the antibodies they produce can then be used to develop antivenom. This long-standing method was described in the report as Victorian medicine.
Much of the new work centres on understanding how the venom itself works. According to the report, in Liverpool scientists are studying exactly how different venoms attack the body. It notes that some venoms shut down breathing, others destroy muscle, and some stop blood from clotting, causing fatal internal bleeding, and that understanding these toxins is leading to entirely new treatments.
The Liverpool team is turning that understanding into a practical, portable treatment. According to the report, the team is developing a simple pill made from existing medicines that can be given to patients where the snake attack takes place, blocking the venom before it causes devastating tissue damage. The approach is said to use synthetic chemicals, along with monoclonal antibodies, nanobodies and small molecule drugs that can be produced consistently in the lab.
The effort is not limited to a single laboratory. According to the report, around 600 miles away in Copenhagen, another team is tackling the same problem but from a different direction. Together, the two research groups reflect a wider push to replace century-old methods with new tools that could reach patients more quickly after a bite.