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Venomous snakebites are responsible for up to 150,000 deaths a year around the world 鈥� and they also leave around half a million survivors with life-changing injuries, including amputations and disfigurement.

In this week鈥檚 Health Check we investigate why snakebite still disproportionately affects poorer, more rural communities, and what is being done to tackle the problem.

We鈥檒l talk to a mother in Kenya whose little girl was bitten by a snake not once, but twice, and to a doctor about how it feels to save lives. We鈥檒l hear how anti-venoms are checked and how in many cases they are too expensive to afford and how there are not always enough supplies. And even when they are available some don鈥檛 work well.

Smitha Mundasad also visits the Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions in Liverpool, England, where she gets to see a snake being 鈥渕ilked鈥� for its venom 鈥� and finds out how new and improved anti-venoms are being created, all with a little help from camels.

Join us on a journey crossing continents, from the front line of the fight against snakebite to the hunt for new therapies.

Image: Herpetologist Edouard Crittenden 鈥渕ilking鈥� a snake for its venom.

Presenter: Smitha Mundasad
Producers: Gerry Holt & Julia Ravey