Inside West Africa’s Leading Snakebite clinic
For a country of only 13 million people Guinea accounts for 10% of all deaths by snakebite in Africa. Every year about 3,600 people are killed by snakebites, which has one of the highest concentration of mambas, cobras and vipers on Earth. At Kindia's centre de traitement des envenimations, the country’s only specialised snakebite clinic, and the most advanced in West Africa, patients arrive after difficult journeys to receive lifesaving antivenom. elsewhere in Guinea, the situation is dire. Of the country's eight regional health centres, the best-stocked has a reserve of just 18 antivenom doses — half the strength of those at the Kindia clinic — and some have none at all. A standard bite can use 3-5 doses.
Roads around the the clinic in Kindia can take hours to navigate by car or motorcycle with many patients during the rainy season - when the highest frequency of bites happen - arriving at the clinic with hypothermia. It is not uncommon for victims to die on route to the clinic falling off of bikes, dyeing on the side of the road.
Traditional healers remain a fast and cheap, yet dangerous, alternative risking severe complications when the victim does eventually go to an official medical facility. However, when 50% of bites are dry bites these traditional forms of treatment in the eyes of the victim work. This false positive keeps traditional healers a popular but dangerous first option after a bite.
The Research Institute of Applied Biology of Guinea linked to the clinic has been instrumental in developing more effective anti venoms, researchers hunt snakes in the surrounding forests catching and then harvesting the venom. This venom can then be analysed and used to fine tune anti-venom to be more effective for snakes in West Africa.
This combination of poor access to medical facilities, bad transport and the use of treatments that make snakebites more severe has proven to be a deadly mix but one that Kindia's Centre de traitement des envenimations has been slowly trying to manage and raise awareness for with some success since it’s creation by Dr Baldé.