Page 118 - JSOM Winter 2021

An Ongoing Series

Asclepius Snakebite Foundation Update

Asclepius Snakebite Foundation*

he foundation founder and executive
director, Jordan Benjamin, is a herpe-
Ttologist, wilderness paramedic, and
scientist with more than a decade of expe-
rience in snakebite treatment, research, and
training in rural sub-Saharan Africa. He is
an expert in the clinical management of snake-
bites and other envenomations in austere, wil-
derness, and operational medicine environments. He
is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine and serves as
a primary subject matter expert on austere snake envenomation
management for the United States Department of Defense and
special operations medicine community.
The Asclepius Snakebite Foundation is composed of many of the
world’s leading experts in snakebite medicine, herpetology, an-
tivenom research, and a range of other fields, as well as partners growing patient population and enable use of the new diagnosis
from the corporate world and academia. 1
and treatment capabilities that were introduced during trainings.
In Summer 2020, the JSOM published the Joint Trauma System Thanks to a very generous donation from BTG Specialty Pharma-
Clinical Practice Guideline: Global Snake Envenomation Manage- ceuticals, this dream become a reality.
ment (CPG ID: 81). In addition, Benjamin presented “Interna- The new clinic will be constructed on a 5-acre plot of land located
2
tional Snakebites” at the Denver Venom Conference on October closer to the city center for improved patient access. This com-
6, 2021. pound will ultimately form the nexus of a new Snakebite Cen-
The foundation donates medications and critical medical sup- ter of Excellence containing classroom space for training medical
plies such as IV fluids, catheters, syringes, intraosseous needles, providers, housing for guest researchers, a herpetological research
atropine, neostigmine, analgesics, antibiotics, endotracheal tubes, building, a serpentarium for snake keeping and venom collection,
laryngeal mask airways, bag-valve masks, ventilators, cardiac administrative offices, kitchen and dining facilities, and dedicated
monitors, bandages, diagnostic tools, and so on to stock their space for hosting conferences where other healthcare workers
snakebite centers in East and West Africa with the tools needed from across Africa can learn how to appropriately treat snakebites
to save lives. using the ASF-Guinea model to improve care in their respective
areas.
Inosan Biopharma, an independent antivenom producer, has gen-
erously offered to provide donations of field-stable polyvalent Guinea is a small West African country with one of the highest
antivenom to support some of our projects in sub-Saharan Af- burdens of snakebite on the continent. The ASF Guinea team es-
rica. This is a revolutionary product that can be stored at room timates a burden of 24,000 envenomations, 3,600 deaths, and
temperature on the shelf of poorly equipped clinics in rural areas 4,600 amputations and other disabilities every year, approxi-
where 95% of snakebites occur. mately 15 times higher than previous estimates indicated. Snake-
bite in Guinea is complicated by an unusually high number of
Some of the many activities of the foundation are to establish bites by neurotoxic cobras and mambas that account for roughly
dedicated snakebite centers, donate critical medical supplies, in- 30% of bites and over 70% of fatalities seen at the clinic every
vestigate the high fatality rate of neurotoxic snakebites in guinea, year. Some of the Guinean snake species can kill within an hour by
provide snakebite medicine training materials for local medical paralyzing the respiratory muscles, and many patients die before
providers, improve prehospital care, and snake venom research. ever reaching a clinic.
Toward satisfying several of these goals, a center is being estab-
lished in Guinea.
References
1. https://www.snakebitefoundation.org
ASF Snakebite Center of Excellence in Kindia, Guinea 2. https://www.snakebitefoundation.org/jts-cpg-81-global-snake
It has long been the dream of Dr Cellou Baldé and the ASF team -envenomation-management
to build a new snakebite clinic from the ground up to support a
* Jordan Benjamin, Founder & Executive Director Asclepius Snakebite Foundation www.snakebitefoundation.org
We are an international team of clinicians and scientists on a mission to reverse the cycle of tragic snakebite outcomes through a combination of
innovative research, clinical medicine, and education-based public health initiatives.

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