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The socio-economic burden of snakebite in Sri Lanka

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posted on 2025-05-08, 20:18 authored by Anuradhani Kasturiratne, Arunasalam Pathmeswaran, A. Rajitha Wickremasinghe, Shaluka F. Jayamanne, Andrew Dawson, Geoffrey IsbisterGeoffrey Isbister, Hithanadura Janaka de Silva, David G. Lalloo
Background: Snakebite is a major problem affecting the rural poor in many of the poorest countries in the tropics. However, the scale of the socio-economic burden has rarely been studied. We undertook a comprehensive assessment of the burden in Sri Lanka. Methods: Data from a representative nation-wide community based household survey were used to estimate the number of bites and deaths nationally, and household and out of pocket costs were derived from household questionnaires. Health system costs were obtained from hospital cost accounting systems and estimates of antivenom usage. DALYs lost to snakebite were estimated using standard approaches using disability weights for poisoning. Findings: 79% of victims suffered economic loss following a snakebite with a median out of pocket expenditure of $11.82 (IQR 2–28.57) and a median estimated loss of income of $28.57 and $33.21 for those in employment or self-employment, respectively. Family members also lost income to help care for patients. Estimated health system costs for Sri Lanka were $ 10,260,652 annually. The annual estimated total number of DALYS was 11,101 to 15,076 per year for envenoming following snakebite. Interpretation: Snakebite places a considerable economic burden on the households of victims in Sri Lanka, despite a health system which is accessible and free at the point of care. The disability burden is also considerable, similar to that of meningitis or dengue, although the relatively low case fatality rate and limited physical sequelae following bites by Sri Lankan snakes means that this burden may be less than in countries on the African continent.

Funding

NHMRC

631073

630650

1055176

059542

1061041

History

Journal title

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Volume

11

Issue

7

Article number

e0005647

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Place published

San Francisco, CA

Language

  • en, English

College/Research Centre

Faculty of Health and Medicine

School

School of Medicine and Public Health

Rights statement

© 2017 Kasturiratne et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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