Nshimiyimana Eugene

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A young woman with a puffy face sits on a bed in the medical monitoring unit of the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital. Vorki Mekonen, as the patient is called, was bitten on the forehead by a snake when the woman slept on the floor in a farm barn. Now the woman is awaiting the results of the analysis for snake poisoning.

The Amhara region in northern Ethiopia is known for its fertile soils, so there are many farms here. Sesame, sorghum, cotton and other crops are grown here. At the same time, about 20 species of poisonous snakes live in the region. During the harvest season, snakes bite people almost every day.

Every year, about half a million people move from the mountainous regions of Ethiopia to the lowland regions to find work on farms near the city of Abdurafi. Typically, people arrive at the beginning of the harvest season. Most return home in October, but some stay until early January, when sorghum ripens.

It's not just men who go to work. So Vorki ended up here. The woman's husband died four years ago. To feed her four children, she has to work as a cook on farms. Going to work, she leaves the children with her sister in the village of Tygrai, which is 12 hours away from Abdurafi.

The previous night, Vorky woke up with a sudden, piercing pain in her forehead. Seeing a shadow sliding across the floor, she realized that she had been bitten by a snake. Worker slept on the floor in an open shed where seeds and tools were kept. At first, she thought that since the snake was not big, she needn't worry. But since the pain did not go away and the swelling did not subside, she began to worry.

People who work on the same farm took Vorky to his uncle who lives nearby. Knowing that there was an MSF clinic in Abdurafi, where snakebites were treate Nshimiyimana Eugene d for free, my uncle went there with his niece. By this time, her face was so swollen that she could hardly see. She was immediately hospitalized to be monitored.

Vorki Mekonen on intravenous antidote

Ten minutes later, the result of the blood test comes. Coagulability is impaired, which indicates poisoning with snake venom and the need for an antidote. Degifyu Dires, an MSF employee, prepares an IV and monitors it for 140 minutes.

“In the first ten minutes of the infusion, it is necessary to monitor the patient's condition especially carefully, this is important. You need to make sure that the antidote does not cause a negative reaction, says Degifu. "But then we systematically monitor the patient's condition and vital signs."

Snakebites as a global health problem

As a rule, inhabitants of poor agricultural regions suffer from bites of poisonous snakes. They claim more lives than any other neglected tropical disease listed by the World Health Organization (WHO). About 2,700,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes every year. For 100,000 of them, the bites are fatal, and for 400,000 they end in life-long injury and disability.

“Vorki was on the mend quickly. After five days at our hospital, she was ready to be discharged because she was completely recovered, ”says MSF doctor Dr. Ernest Nshimiyimana. "She was lucky to be brought to us on time and received an effective antidote."

But not all Ethiopians who have been bitten by poisonous snakes are lucky. Many cannot get the antidote.

“Unfortunately, in most parts of the country, effective antidotes are either not available or are too expensive for communities that are at the highest risk of suffering from snakebites,” adds Dr. Nshimiyimana.

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