UGHE, Partners seek the way to address the Issue of Snakebite in Africa

The University of Global Health Equity Rwanda has announced the launch of the African Snakebite Alliance (ASA), of which UGHE is a proud partner. This initiative aims to foster collaborations that will drive impactful research and policy engagement to reduce the impact of snakebite across Africa.

Funded by the Wellcome Trust, African Snakebite Alliance is a 5-year project led by UGHE’s Center for One Health, in partnership with Rwanda Biomedical Centre, School of Tropical Medicine, Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, Kenya Institute of Primate Research and Eswatini Antivenom Foundation.

The legacy of neglect for snakebite is clear with up to one-third of the annual global snakebite deaths occuring in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This neglect includes the uncounted deaths and severe and permanent morbidity caused by these bites. The 2019 WHO roadmap has a clearly stated goal of halving snakebite deaths and disability worldwide by 2030. However, achieving that goal is considerably hampered by the lack of high-quality research evidence to inform policy and practice.

The African Snakebite Alliances aims to address this in the coming years.