Bangladesh's homegrown antivenom research has been stalled for two years: Russell's viper antibody made, but no funding released

Bangladesh's Venom Research Centre completed a key stage in making an antivenom for the Russell's viper — producing the antibody — and submitted its report to the government two years ago. But with no funds allocated, all of the institution's research work has come to a standstill.

The Venom Research Centre was established in 2018 on the Chattogram Medical College campus. It is the only institution of its kind in the country, and since its founding it had been run under the Directorate General of Health Services' operational plan.

The centre's chief researcher, Professor Aniruddha Ghosh of the medicine department at Chattogram Medical College, said research has virtually stalled for lack of funds, as the government has approved no money since 30 June 2024. He said funding stopped after no new operational plan was passed following 2024, once a decision was taken that projects would no longer run through operational plans in that way.

According to 2023 government data, 450,000 people are bitten by snakes every year in Bangladesh and more than 7,500 of them die. The World Health Organization estimates that about 5.4 million people are bitten worldwide each year, with venom entering the body in 1.8 to 2.7 million of those cases. In 2017, the WHO listed snakebite as an extremely neglected problem.

A national snakebite survey conducted in 2023 found that venomous snakes are involved in a quarter of snakebite incidents in the country, and that 95 percent of bites occur in rural areas. Snake activity rises in the monsoon, and deaths from snakes such as the Russell's viper, common krait, cobra and Chandrabora are often reported in that season.

The same research found that about 80 percent of people tie a tourniquet at the bite site. Reliance on traditional healers and exorcism instead of doctors kills more than 6,000 people in the country every year. According to the government survey, 86 percent of snakebite patients suffer maltreatment, and only 3 percent go to hospital for treatment.

Researchers say patients in hospitals across Bangladesh are currently treated with antivenom brought from South India. That antivenom is made against Indian snake species and is not scientifically fully effective at neutralising the venom of local snakes.

Professor Aniruddha Ghosh said the WHO has stated that every country must try to make antivenom using venom from its own region's snakes, so that the antivenom works much more specifically. He said: 'We produced the Russell's viper antibody and submitted it to the government along with the report.'

The centre's next goal was to produce antibodies for snakes whose bites paralyse the nervous system, such as the krait and the cobra, and to test whether those antibodies neutralise the venom. But Professor Ghosh said that work still could not be started for lack of funding. Venom characterisation must be done before antibody production, and they do not have the money even for that; in his words, they have somehow been surviving for the past two years.

The Venom Research Centre has collected more than 350 venomous snakes from different parts of the country. But it has collected no snakes in the past two years for lack of funding. The centre's investigator and supervisor, Professor Md Abdul Wahed Chowdhury of the zoology department at the University of Chittagong, said venom has so far been collected from Bangladesh's 11 most venomous snake species — including two species of cobra, one king cobra, five species of krait, one Russell's viper and two species of pit viper.

Professor Chowdhury said collecting venom from krait-type snakes is very difficult. At least five milligrams of venom are needed to begin antivenom work; rearing a thousand kraits for six months and collecting venom every month might yield five milligrams, because only about a drop is obtained from a krait. A self-contained rat-breeding centre has been built at the centre to feed the snakes kept there; Professor Ghosh said it costs about Tk 100,000 a month.

On the antivenom bought from India, Professor Chowdhury said it is made by combining venom from four snakes — a cobra, a krait and two vipers (the Russell's viper and the saw-scaled viper), which India calls the 'Big Four'. Three of the four are found in Bangladesh; only the saw-scaled viper is not. For environmental reasons, the venom of the same cobra species in South India does not match that of Bangladesh's cobras; an antivenom made from South India's local snake venom will work best against that local venom.

Professor Md Halimur Rashid, director of disease control at the Directorate General of Health Services, said the government plans to bring projects that were under operational plans under the revenue budget and DPPs. Funding for the Venom Research Centre will remain suspended for now, because no decision has yet been taken on which head its funding will come from. In his words, it has not yet been decided whether the project will go under a DPP or the revenue head; if the project writes to the DG, the DG may take it into account and act.

Professor Ghosh said the government has meanwhile begun trying again to prepare a Development Project Proposal, or DPP. They prepared a DPP, passed it through the health ministry, finance ministry and Planning Commission, and submitted the final version again to the health directorate; from there it will go back to the health ministry, and government funding will come if it is passed. In May 2018, the WHO had described snakebite as a global health crisis and called on member states to act towards halving snakebite deaths by 2030.