Story highlights
- Venomous snakes kill tens of thousands in sub-Saharan Africa
- Public health experts say the problem has been neglected
- WHO is developing a plan of action to tackle snakebite crisis
(CNN)Rainy seasons in Nigeria bring out venomous snakes, which emerge from their shelters to hunt and breed.
This is always a hazardous time, particularly for agricultural workers tending their fields, and this autumn proved especially cruel.
Around 250 people were reportedly killed over a three-week period in the central states of Gombe and Plateau, in a crisis that overwhelmed local doctors and prompted a national outcry.
The case was extreme, but not unique. Nigeria is among the countries worst affected by what some public health experts are calling an epidemic.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to many of the world's deadliest snakes, including the black mamba and the carpet viper, and they exact a terrible toll. An estimated 32,000 people in the region are killed each year by snakebites, and a further 100,000 are left disabled, often by severe injuries that require limb amputations.
But despite the scale of the crisis, specialists in the field say the response has been sorely lacking.