3 ms·

Something doesn't seem right with the statistics used here. 5 million bites sounds very high. The likely difference is the disclaimer from the article "these

Something doesn't seem right with the statistics used here. 5 million bites sounds very high. The likely difference is the disclaimer from the article "these numbers reflect estimated, rather than reported, cases". My guess is that non-reporting is very prevalent, but it's disproportionately likely for non-serious bites. Deaths and very serious bites probably do get reported much more frequently. As a counterpoint, take this article investigating South Africa's KZN province [1]. This province has most of SA's most venomous snakes, and also some of the highest incidences of snake bites in SA. The article estimates this at 24 to 34 bites per 100,000 people per year. The mortality rate is between 1 to 2% of these reported cases, bringing the total to 49 to 69 people per year, in a province of just over 10 million. It's easy to see why snake bites are not a particular focus; there are 9 different species venomous snakes in a geographically large province. Contrasted with HIV / AIDS which kills many tens of thousands a year in the same province, the difference is stark. I'm honestly not sure why there's such a difference between the numbers in these articles, but it's day and night. [1] http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0256-95742009001100024 http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S...

harshreality 10y ago
Why are you focusing only on SA? SA is not representative of Africa as a whole, much less Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites paragraphs 2 and 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites#/media/File:Number_of_snake_envenomings.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites#/me...
- danielbarla 10y ago
  SA is simply where I live / have some heresay experience with. While snake bites are not unheard of, they are not exactly common either, so I'm skeptical on the topic. Nevertheless, I still think the poster on the original article is misleading. It headlines with "~5 million snake bites", while your citation puts it at anything between 1.2 to 5.4. Actual envenomings are between 420K to 1.8 million. That's a huge variance in itself, and the uncertainty is not reflected in the article much. My point is also that if they're inflating the estimated deaths by as much as the reported bites to estimated bites, it's likely incredibly incorrect. Deaths generally get investigated and reported, while lesser bites would not necessarily.

harshreality 10y ago

Why are you focusing only on SA? SA is not representative of Africa as a whole, much less Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites paragraphs 2 and 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites#/media/File:Number_of_snake_envenomings.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_snakebites#/me...

danielbarla 10y ago
SA is simply where I live / have some heresay experience with. While snake bites are not unheard of, they are not exactly common either, so I'm skeptical on the topic. Nevertheless, I still think the poster on the original article is misleading. It headlines with "~5 million snake bites", while your citation puts it at anything between 1.2 to 5.4. Actual envenomings are between 420K to 1.8 million. That's a huge variance in itself, and the uncertainty is not reflected in the article much. My point is also that if they're inflating the estimated deaths by as much as the reported bites to estimated bites, it's likely incredibly incorrect. Deaths generally get investigated and reported, while lesser bites would not necessarily.