Africa braced for snakebite crisis

Health specialists warn that stocks of antivenom will run out in 2016.

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The deadly carpet viper (Echis ocellatus).

Rural Africa is facing a resurgence of a persistent plague that uncommonly makes headlines: snakebite.

By June next year, stockpiles of the anti-venom that is most effective against Africa’s vipers, mambas and cobras are expected to run out because the only company that makes the medicine has stopped production. (more…)