"One and a half million people per year are poisoned by snake venom in Sub-Saharan Africa." Turns out the estimates were way under-estimated. I particularly like the cycle of ignorance, poor outcomes, and under-reporting described in the article. Ain't it the way?
Another article says, "Most victims of snakebite are among the poorest, least empowered people in the world..." but at least holds out some hope for an improvement in the pharma situation.
As I've tried to ask in other forums, if this were a microbe or even a parasite causing such havoc, people would be talking about eradication. Not in the case of venomous snakes, though. Why is that? Wouldn't people rather put up with rodents (snakes -- some of them -- eat rodents, but how many? Are they really a necessary vector in controlling the population of rats n' mice?)
Oh, well. Who knows how we'd do it if we could. We don't seem to be doing very well with mosquitoes and poison ivy, over here, after all.
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