Rabies and Envenomings: A Neglected Public Health Issue: Report of a Consultative Meeting

by World Health Organization

This publication reports on a Consultative Meeting convened to discuss strategies for improving the quality and quantity of therapeutic antisera essential drugs for the effective treatment of suspected rabid dog bites and envenoming by snakebites and scorpion stings. Inadequacies in the efficacy safety and production of these antisera have created a major global public health crisis especially in Africa and Asia.

Each year millions of people are bitten by dogs or snakes or stung by scorpions and the failure to provide antisera costs at least 150,000 lives and at least as many cases of permanent physical handicap. The solution to this crisis demands an international effort to promote transfer of technology to affected countries to improve standards through the WHO's prequalification scheme and to facilitate distribution of antisera and training of medical personnel in their optimal use.

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations.

The constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by 61 countries on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office international d'hygiène publique and the League of Nations Health Organization. Since its creation, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health, development, and aging; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; and driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.

The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, a leading international publication on health, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day (7 April of every year)