Snakebite envenoming (snakebite hereafter) is a deadly neglected tropical disease (NTD) affecting underserved and rural populations in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. According to WHO, 5 million snake bites occur globally every year, causing 81,000–138,000 deaths and 400,000 victims of permanent disability. In Sub-Saharan Africa, up to a million people are reported as being bitten yearly with estimates of 7,000–20,000 deaths, but snakebite cases are almost certainly under-reported.

MSF has been a key global actor on NTD for decades, and particularly on Snakebite in the recent decade.
MSF has been a key actor assessing community needs (epidemiology of snakebite), improving clinical care (algorithms & training), and advocating access to appropriate antivenoms (Ministry Health and WHO) , and research (MSF, UNIGE, HUG). MSF helped uniting strengths, national experts and authorities in endemic countries, contributing to the WHO resolution and WHO roadmap on snakebite envenoming.


We aim to improve the management of snakebite in endemic countries by supporting health professionals and the population at risk in (I) the identification of snakes and (II) the treatment of victims (e.g. antivenom choice). We plan to develop the first online platform to instantly and reliably identify snakes using AI-based image recognition (SNAICS: Snakes Artificial Intelligence and Crowdsourcing). We leverage the expansion of mobile technologies in LMICs countries and the current developments of AI in both the field of animal recognition and global health.