Accessibility links
Snakebite : Planet Money Snakebites are common but antivenom is expensive to develop. So a doctor goes to extreme lengths to find a solution. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
NPR logo

Snakebite

Listen · 24:35
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/779023183/790136543" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Snakebite

Planet Money

Snakebite

Snakebite

Listen · 24:35
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/779023183/790136543" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
TO GO WITH AFP NOTE BY ANA FERNANDEZ A poisonous Costa Rican Coralsnake (Micrurus mosquitensis) is pictured on April 12, 2010 at the serpentarium of the Clodomiro Picado Institute in Coronado, some 8 kilometers northwest of San Jose.
Enlarge this image
YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images
TO GO WITH AFP NOTE BY ANA FERNANDEZ A poisonous Costa Rican Coralsnake (Micrurus mosquitensis) is pictured on April 12, 2010 at the serpentarium of the Clodomiro Picado Institute in Coronado, some 8 kilometers northwest of San Jose.
YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images

There are millions of snakebite victims every year, but there hasn't been much progress in how to treat them since antivenom — or antivenin — was developed over 100 years ago.

Most of the people bitten by venomous snakes live in poor, rural areas in Africa, Asia, or Latin America, and as a result there haven't been a lot of market incentives to find better solutions.

Today on the show, a doctor comes up with a solution, and he goes to extreme lengths to test it out. Also, the Talking Heads.

Music: "Home (Eternal Warmth)," Talking Heads – "Psycho Killer," and "We Don't Care."

Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and NPR One.

Do you want to know more about people who experiment on themselves to try to solve failures of the market? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.