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Episode 951: 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.
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Episode 951: Snakebite

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Episode 951: Snakebite

Planet Money

Episode 951: Snakebite

Episode 951: 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."

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