Researchers who modelled data from 79 countries say snake envenoming is a much larger public health crisis than official statistics show, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the heaviest burden.
A new study led by researchers including Dileepa Ediriweera of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine estimates that venomous snakebites kill between 274,000 and 513,000 people every year. The authors say at least 2.1 million people experience snake envenoming annually and the true figure could reach 7 million, while more than 800,000 survivors are left with long-term disabilities such as amputations. They argue the scale is far greater than official statistics suggest because more than half of the countries where venomous snakes pose a threat do not keep count of bites or envenomings.
The team reviewed studies published up to 31 March 2025 covering 79 countries, updating a landmark 2008 global burden analysis. To fill the remaining gaps, they built a geostatistical model that combines real-world data with climate, snake species richness and socioeconomic indicators, and calibrated it against community survey data to account for unreported cases. The result is a floor and a plausible ceiling rather than a single exact count. According to the researchers, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 45% of all global envenomings and deaths, and people there experience envenoming and death at nearly three times the rate seen in south Asia, with Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia among the high-burden countries.
The authors point to structural causes: medically important species such as saw-scaled vipers, puff adders, cobras and mambas, farm workers labouring without protective footwear, long journeys to clinics and the high cost or absence of antivenom. The World Health Organization lists snakebite envenoming as a highest-priority neglected tropical disease and has set a target of halving deaths and disability by 2030; it also notes that health ministry figures often capture only a small share of real cases. The researchers say mapping risk at country level is a first step that can help governments and global health partners place antivenom stockpiles, train primary care workers and improve rapid transport in the highest-risk rural areas. The figures are model-based estimates, not direct counts.
