Abstract
The species richness of venomous snakes in Ecuador (~39 species) is among the highest in the world. However, until now no information exists regarding geographic patterns of ophidism. In this study, we present a detailed spatial snakebite risk map which was built by stacking weighted ecological niche models of the 19 snake species responsible for the majority of Ecuador’s envenomation cases. Our weights were based on the proportion of cases reported for each species on local epidemiological studies. Based on our analyses, we identify 184 densely populated rural communities with high snakebite risk that should be monitored by health organizations. We also identified three densely populated rural locations (Palora Metzera, Sangay and Shell) that may require special attention because they had much higher snakebite risk values than the rest.
Highlights
IntroductionOphidism is considered a neglected tropical disease, despite its high incidence, and the considerable health problems (serious and permanent functional sequelae in affected persons) and high number of deaths that it causes in human populations [1,2]
Ophidism is considered a neglected tropical disease, despite its high incidence, and the considerable health problems and high number of deaths that it causes in human populations [1,2]
A good predictive performance was observed in potential distribution models for almost all venomous snakes, including those of medical importance such as Bothrops asper, B. atrox, B. brazili, Bothrocophias microphthalmus, Bothriopsis bilineata, B. taeniata, Lachesis muta [4,22,23], except Micrurus dumerilii
Summary
Ophidism is considered a neglected tropical disease, despite its high incidence, and the considerable health problems (serious and permanent functional sequelae in affected persons) and high number of deaths that it causes in human populations [1,2]. Recent global estimates suggest that a minimum of 421,000 envenomings and 20,000 deaths owed to venomous snakes take place each year, and that these numbers could be up to 1,841,000 bites and 94,000 deaths [3]. Based on the fact that envenomings occur in about one in four people who are bitten, these same authors estimated that between 1.2 and 5.5 million of snakebites occur annually. Ecuador has a great diversity of venomous snakes (~36 species, which account to 5 and 19% of the diversity of the world and the Americas, respectively) [4], and one of the highest prevalence of snakebites in the continent [5]. Epidemiologic studies in the country remains scarce [4]. There has been one comprehensive study of temporal and social aspects of snakebites, but a geographical analysis of snakebite risk is still lacking [2]
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