Snakebite Emergency Response System (SERS)

The Alistair Reid Venom Unit at LSTM received funding from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust to develop and test a Snakebite Emergency Response System (SERS) programme in Kitui County, Kenya that could reduce snakebite-related death and disability in rural regions of Africa and Asia where tropical snakebite kills 32,000 people annually.

Once bitten, victims require immediate medical treatment, but this is too often unavailable and unaffordable leaving over 90,000 people with devastating and debilitating disfigurement. Effective and rapid first-aid treatment combined with quick transportation to hospital is essential.

We provide community health volunteers with Android phones that is equipped with SERS, a smart-phone app that enables them to identify snakes, the severity of the symptoms, administer first aid and, if needed, deploy specially-designed motorcycle ambulances to rapidly and safely transport victims to well-equipped health care facilities. The motorbike ambulance is staffed with a paramedic and equipped with a snake-bite specific first-aid kit, providing rapid medical treatment to even the most remote locations.

SERS has the potential to drastically improve health systems infrastructure, save lives and prevent disability, reducing the socioeconomic burden on victims and their families.

LSTM have collaborated with PROSOCIAL to create a giving platform to support the SERS project. To donate to this life-saving intervention please visit the site.