Global Snakebite Initiative USA Foundation Inc

From GSI’s East Africa Center of Excellence in Kenya, to our India-wide community education programs, to online health worker snakebite training courses, our projects span the globe! Each and every project fulfills key pillars of the WHO Strategy to reduce deaths and disabilities by half, by 2030.

In 2018, after an historic push by snakebite experts, coordinated worldwide by GSI’s partners, the WHO declared that snakebite envenomation is “a disease whose time has come.” The WHO then adopted a resolution listing snakebite as a “Category A” Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD). The next year, the WHO released a strategic roadmap to reduce snakebite death and disability by 50% by the year 2030. The WHO identified four key pillars:
1. Increased collaboration and partnerships;
2. Empower and engage communities;
3. Strengthen health systems; and
4. Ensure safe, effective treatments.

GSI has designed its programs around these four pillars, and is leading the charge to ensure that the WHO meets its stated goal.

Our approach in addressing the problem starts by understanding the deficiencies in the snakebite cycle based on the cases we hear about daily. The problem begins in communities where people are unsure how to co-exist with the wildlife in their area; not knowing what types of snakes they might encounter, where those snakes are, nor when they might be encountered. When a bite occurs, their community isn’t educated on the appropriate first-aid to be administered in the immediate aftermath of a bite occurrence, nor the urgency of getting their loved one to a medical clinic for treatment.

Even when a victim does reach the nearest medical clinic quickly, it is likely low on equipment and supplies and has staff that is untrained in the treatment of snakebite. The snakebite patient arrives—fearful, scared, and near death—and the doctors can’t help. Often they are just as scared as the victim in front of them. For this reason, the local doctor refers the victim elsewhere, and the likelihood of death or disability increases exponentially. Many patients die in transport. Even if they make it to the next hospital, the antivenom available to a doctor trained in snakebite treatment may not be appropriate for treating the kind of snake that bit the victim.

GSI is addressing the global scourge of snakebite from every possible angle. We’re supporting community educators to increase prevention and first-aid care. We’re training doctors to confidently treat patients. We’re getting rural medical centers the equipment and supplies they need to effectively treat snakebite victims. And we’re improving treatment options with better antivenoms and venom extraction programs. The leading experts worldwide say these are the steps to achieving the WHO’s goal, and GSI is leading a global, coordinated charge to make that goal a reality.

GSI experts have worked in snakebite endemic countries for decades. We are advocates, snakebite and multi-specialty physicians, community educators, scientists, herpetologists, conservationists, even filmmakers. We’ve been on the frontlines and have advocated for change in the local, national, and global arenas. We are the force that has gotten snakebite on the WHO’s agenda as a Category A neglected tropical disease, and we were critical in ushering in the roadmap. We are now doing the work to ensure the roadmap meets the goal.

We are “doers” and act with empathy, purpose and passion. We are driven by those we’ve met in countries far and wide who have suffered and desperately want better outcomes. In turn, we support those on the ground who share these values, implementing country-led solutions for their fellow citizens.

We listen to the needs of impacted communities, guided by the experience of frontline experts and informed by research to design and support bespoke, sustainable and needle-moving projects.

We act with a pioneering spirit, motivated by the achievements made in this young global health movement and the desire to fill gaps as identified by those on the frontlines.

We are nimble and always open to explore new areas of need and collaboration to support short and long-term projects.

We have, and will always play a leading role in fostering community and to support the growth of our movement with new voices and aligned stakeholders.