Developing Snakebite Research Hubs- Improving Evidence based decision making in Snakebite in Africa

Grantholders

  • Prof David Lalloo

    Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom

Project summary

Snakebite has recently been recognised as a Neglected Tropical Disease, In addition to the limited availability of high quality antivenoms, one of the major challenges to improving outcomes is that there is currently no established mechanism for a) determining the key evidence gaps, b) coordinating the necessary research and evidence generation and c) providing appropriate scientific and technical advice to governments and Ministries of Health to inform appropriate policy development. This application seeks to undertake the initial work necessary for planning how these public health and policy issues could be addressed in sub-Saharan Africa. It will comprise two main phases: a) a wide-ranging scoping review and mapping of critical issues and priorities b) exploration of the best approaches and structures to address the issues identified in phase 1 and development of a clear strategy and plan to implement a solution.

The overarching aim is: To undertake the preliminary work necessary to identify the barriers to evidence-based decision making at national and regional level for snakebite in Africa and to inform the optimal design of a major research and policy initiative that will overcome these barriers.