South Africa is in the mid of a health crisis with a scramble for snake antivenom. Veterinarians are not able to get any antivenom as the little still available is only used for human treatment.

“Dogs are now dying from snakebites because veterinarians cannot get antivenom,” a veterinarian says.

Snake Bite Assist said there may be only a couple of vials left in the country. The health crisis was again highlighted when a man was recently bitten by a Cape cobra in the Western Cape and no antivenom could be obtained.

The African Snakebite Institute has been inundated with calls from desperate doctors, veterinarians and hospitals.

Snake expert Jason Seale of the Hartbeespoort Snake and Animal Park which has been supplying antivenom to hospitals and veterinarians says the situation is a disaster.

“We are contacted daily by hospitals and veterinarians for antivenom which is not available. Antivenom has run out and is not being replenished. We are now looking at importing antivenom. We are in consultation with the manufacturer and have approached the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority for approval to use import and distribute this premium serum approved by the World Health Organisation that will save human and animal lives and prevent suffering.”

Johan Marais, a herpetologist and CEO of the African Snakebite Institute, previously told the media that it is a ‘major disaster’ that doctors and vets can’t get hold of the polyvalent antivenom.

The African Snakebite Institute already warned the government in January that a crisis is at hand. The South African Vaccine Producers (SAVP) is the only manufacturer of snake antivenom in the country and at the end of 2022, there was reportedly already a six-month production backlog. The shortage has been blamed on load-shedding, and a lack of funds to update old equipment to produce antivenom supplies.

The National Snakebite Advisory Group, comprising of medical doctors, snake handlers and antivenom experts appealed to the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, to intervene and ensure funding and emergency upgrades of equipment and backup power supply at the SAVP which falls under the National Health Laboratory Service.

The DA this week said that it was unacceptable that the country’s five-year supply of antivenom has been depleted to the extent that doctors and veterinarians have to struggle to save their patients in the event of a snake bite.

“Despite the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla’s, assurance that the shortage of snake-antivenom in South Africa is being monitored, the battle to find antivenom after a man was bitten by a Cape cobra last week shows the extent of the problem. The DA will submit written parliamentary questions to the minister to determine what has been done to address the National Health Laboratory Service’s (NHLS) shortage and which health facilities and practitioners have been supplied with antivenom.”

The DA said the NHLS’ efforts to lay the blame on load-shedding and ‘difficulty in sourcing the material’ shows the department’s chronic and systemic failure to manage and maintain basic health care services, as well as their inability for long-term planning and identifying of problems.

“The antivenom shortage did not happen overnight. Why did the department and the NHLS not flag the declining stock before it became a crisis and take appropriate steps to avert it?”

NHLS’ claims

The NHLS on April 5 released a statement to say that ‘contrary to the recent media reports that there is no snakebite antivenom in the country, there is antivenom available in South Africa and more antivenom doses are being manufactured’.

“We have scaled up our snakebite antivenom production and have been dispatching units since December 2022. We continue to distribute this much-needed and life-saving medicine throughout the country. As such, between December 1, 2022 and March 31 we have distributed 1 422 doses throughout the country and still have doses currently in the production phase.

“We have been distributing a batch of 1 077 snakebite antivenom doses as from Monday [April 3] and continue to maintain a limited number of doses for emergencies,” the statement read.