The global burden of snakebite: a literature analysis and modelling based on regional estimates of envenoming and deaths.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Envenoming resulting from snakebites is an important public health problem in many tropical and subtropical countries. Few attempts have been made to quantify the burden, and recent estimates all suffer from the lack of an objective and reproducible methodology. In an attempt to provide an accurate, up-to-date estimate of the scale of the global problem, we developed a new method to estimate the disease burden due to snakebites.

Methods and findings

The global estimates were based on regional estimates that were, in turn, derived from data available for countries within a defined region. Three main strategies were used to obtain primary data: electronic searching for publications on snakebite, extraction of relevant country-specific mortality data from databases m

SUBMITTER: Kasturiratne A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2577696 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature