Statesman and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan once called snakebites "the biggest public health crisis you've never heard of." The World Health Organization is looking to change that.
Image: Facebook/Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation
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Millions of people across the world read about the horrors of the Ebola virus in 2014, when the deadly disease rapidly spread from a small village in Guinea to the rest of West Africa, Europe and the United States, killing around 11,000 people.
The three-year outbreak attracted widespread international news coverage generating pervasive fear throughout the Western world.
However, as international news anchors warned citizens of the risks of the Ebola virus, another far deadlier killer swept sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and South Asia: venomous snakes.
Snakebite took the lives of up to 400,000 victims between 2014 and 2016, making it almost 40 times deadlier than the Ebola virus.
A green rainforest snake hisses.Image: picture-alliance/Evolve/Photoshot
Although there is a global medicinal cure for snakebite called "anti-venom," it still accounted for up to 130,000 deaths and over 300,000 paralyzing injuries and amputations last year.
The organization wants to cut the number of snakebite deaths in half by 2030 via a $136.76-million (€122.67-million) bid to educate communities on how to prevent snakebites and provide more widespread anti-venom medication to impoverished communities historically incapable of receiving proper timely care.
Statesman and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan once called snakebite "the biggest public health crisis you've never heard of."
In Western countries, fear of snakes is often considered an irrational anxiety akin to phobias of plane crashes, spiders and heights.
This makes sense: in the United States, venomous snakebites kill approximately five people per year. In Europe, the estimate is even smaller, at less than four deaths per year.
Developing countries tell a different story.
The global number of snakebite deaths, although estimated at anywhere from 81,000 to 138,000 by the WHO, is likely even higher than that, according to researchers.
Most deaths occur in rural villages in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Because many of the villages are hours away from local hospitals, up to 80% of victims often try to heal the bites through home remedies or local healers, according to the WHO.
The centuries-old art of snake charming in India has been on the decline for some time. The charmers have a hard time making a living and the Indian government has been strict about protecting the animals.
Image: picture alliance / WILDLIFE
In every bazar and at every festival
In the past, they were a common sight at markets and festivals. Today, snake charmers have become rare.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
Honoring Shiva
Snake charmers worship the blue-skinned Indian god Shiva, who is usually depicted with a king cobra coiled around his neck.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
Healing snake bites
People used to visit a snake charmer when they were bitten by a snake. Today, they go to see a doctor, as long as one is available.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
Coming home
After months of travelling, a snake charmer returns to his native village Baghpur in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
The village of snake charmers
In the village of Baghpur many families are still making a living from their old tradition. However, they have a hard time to make ends meet. The average income is just 200 rupees (about 3 euros) a day - hardly enough to feed a family.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
Playing with snakes
While she is munching on her breakfast, this little girl plays with two snakes. Even young children are familiar with the reptiles.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
The next generation
Today, fewer and fewer learn the art of snake charming. Many consider it to be outdated and something that does not fit into modern India.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
Animal protection
Snake charming became officially illegal in 1991. But for many years, the government has not been very strict on enforcing the ban. This is supposed to change and could be the deathblow for the snake charmers of Baghpur.
Image: Reuters/A. Abidi
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Trouble with medicating
Without hospital numbers, it is hard for governments to know how many people are actually dying from the bites. For example, a large community-level study of snakebite deaths in India gave a direct estimate of 45,900 deaths in 2005, which is over 30 times higher than the government of India's official figure, according to researchers.
The island of men and snakes
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This makes it difficult for governments like India's to order proper, area-specific amounts of anti-venom medicine for their hospitals.
Few of the highly afflicted countries have the infrastructure to produce such medicines and are forced to purchase expensive anti-venom drugs from Western medicine companies. Because the drugs are so specific and hospitals underestimate the amount they need, companies often have so few buyers they halt production of the anti-venom medication.
This happened in 2014, when production of FAV-Afrique, an all-in-one anti-venom used to treat envenoming from 10 different snake species in sub-Saharan Africa, was discontinued. The last batch expired in 2016, according to a Doctors Without Borders report.
A Thai soldier holding a venomous Colbra Gold snakeImage: Reuters/S. Z. Tun
"It is vicious circle, where countries don't buy anti-venoms for their hospitals because they are too expensive, and pharmaceutical companies don't make them because so few buyers are purchasing them," it said.
"The result is that they remain largely out of reach of the people who need them."
Now, Doctors Without Borders uses two types of anti-venom medications. Although they are able to afford them, they say the drugs are too expensive for local hospitals.
In India, the initial cost of treatment could reach up to $5,150, according to the WHO.
Many victims, the report said, spend their savings, sell land or pull their kids out of school to help pay for snakebite treatment.
The WHO plans to gather more precise data samples so hospitals are aware of how much anti-venom medication they will need. The organization also plans to provide methods in which victims living in remote villages can access anti-venom treatment before it is too late, through ambulance services, for example.
Many people fear them, some people love them. In any case, snakes are fascinating and versatile. From the most venomous snake to ones that can fly - here are the most amazing snake species that evolution has given us.
Image: Frupus/nc
The most venomous snake
The inland taipan produces the most toxic venom in the snake kingdom. Researchers estimate that one bite could kill more than 100 men. The taipan's venom is specially adapted to kill warm-blooded animals. It affects the nervous system, the blood and the muscles. The species lives in semi-arid regions in Australia and is strictly protected.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/R. Koenig
The deadliest snake
Though its venom only kills one out of 10 untreated people, the aggressiveness of this snake means it bites quickly and often. This is why the saw-scaled viper is considered the world's deadliest snake, killing the most people. Venomous snakes have diamond-shaped pupils, like cats. Non-venomous snakes have round pupils, like humans. But remember: there is no rule without exceptions!
Image: Frupus/nc
The largest snake
The green anaconda is the largest snake in the world. Living in the dark, deep waters of the South American jungle, some anacondas have been reported to be up to 8.8 meters (29 feet) long. The average anaconda is only about 4 meters long. They are very robust snakes and packed with muscles which they use to kill their prey by wrapping around it and slowly suffocating it.
Image: picture-alliance/OKAPIA KG
Even larger
The green anaconda is nothing compared to the titanoboa. This pre-historic snake was a true giant. The photo shows a python creeping over a single vertebra of titanoboa cerrejonensis discovered in Colombia. Fossils suggest titanoboas could grow up to 13 meters long and weigh 1,135 kilograms (2502 pounds). Like the green anaconda, they probably lived in or very close to water, 40 million years ago.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The smallest snake
The Barbados threadsnake is about 10 centimeters long and, according to its discoverer "about as wide as a spaghetti noodle." It feeds on termites and ant larvae and is found only on the Caribbean island of Barbados. S. Blair Hedges, a herpetologist from Pennsylvania State University, discovered the species in 2008.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The greediest snake
Snakes have a flexible lower jaw that enables them to swallow animals twice their own size. But sometimes even that is too much for them. In 2005, in the Everglades National Park in Florida, a python exploded after trying to swallow a whole alligator. The snake was found with the alligator's tail sticking out of its midsection. Seems like someone got a bit greedy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb
A master of camouflage
Just a leaf? No, it's a gaboon viper. The form and color of its head resembles a leaf perfectly, enabling the ambush predator to wait patiently for prey coming by in the African rainforests. It has the longest fangs of all snakes - up to 5 centimeters (2 inches) - and is also very venomous. The snake is not at all aggressive, though. Only very few people are bitten by it.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa Themendienst
The sneakiest snake
This guy, the scarlet kingsnake, is non-venomous. But it doesn't want other animals to know that. So it mimics the venomous coral snake which has the same tricolored pattern of black, red and white. It's a sneaky way to tell predators to get lost.
Image: picture-alliance/Eibner-Pressefoto
Most water-loving snake
Snakes are everywhere - you can even find them at a coral reef. Some of those sea snakes are really venomous. Unlike fish, they do not have gills and need to get up to the surface regularly to breathe. Sea snakes can grow up to 3 meters (9.8 feet), but the majority only grows up to 1.5 meters. This species, the banded sea snake, regularly returns to land to digest its food, rest and reproduce.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/R. Dirscherl
Snakes that fly
This snake can propel itself forward by thrusting its body up and away from a tree. That's why it is commonly known as the "flying snake." It curls itself up to resemble the form of a frisbee and glide up to 30 meters wide from tree to tree. Its biological name is Chrysopelea and it feeds on lizards, rodents, birds and even bats. But it's harmless to humans.
