ASF Snakebite Center of Excellence in Kindia, Guinea

“If you are getting involved in snakebite for money, you should know that there is no money to be made. But if you want to make a real difference - help your people, save lives, prevent disability, and advance science - then you have found the right project.”

— Dr. Cellou Balde, Founder & Director of ASF Guinea Clinic

BTG donation for new clinic brings new hope to snakebite patients

It has long been the dream of Dr. Baldé and the ASF team to build a new snakebite clinic from the ground up to support a growing patient population and enable use of the new diagnosis and treatment capabilities we have introduced during trainings. Thanks to a very generous donation from BTG Speciality Pharmaceuticals, we are delighted and grateful to announce that this dream has become a reality!

The new clinic is constructed on a 5-acre plot of land located closer to the city center for improved patient access. This compound is a new Snakebite Center of Excellence containing classroom space for training medical providers, housing for guest researchers, a herpetological research building, a serpentarium for snake keeping and venom collection, administrative offices, kitchen and dining facilities, and dedicated space for hosting conferences where other healthcare workers from across Africa can learn how to appropriately treat snakebites using the ASF-Guinea model to improve care in their respective areas.

In addition to the research and treatment capabilities, this center provides essential resources to support family members of patients during their stay at the clinic. These resources include a well for safe drinking water and several agricultural plots to provide food for families who cannot afford it. Previous snakebite victims, unable to work due to snakebite-related disabilities, have been hired to tend the grounds in order provide for families who have already suffered due to this neglected tropical disease. Thanks to the generosity of BTG, the new ASF Guinea clinic will gain critical improvements including additional beds, individual rooms for patient privacy, dedicated storage rooms for maintaining medications and equipment, and a dedicated resuscitation bay to facilitate initial assessment, stabilization, and team-based resuscitation of critically ill snakebite patients. Future plans include potentially a host of improvements including solar panels for sustainable, reliable power supply to support ventilators and cardiac monitoring equipment. We are incredibly grateful to the team at BTG for this donation and look forward to making our goals a reality.

snakebite treatment in guinea brings unique challenges

Guinea is a small West African country with one of the highest burdens of snakebite on the continent. The ASF Guinea team estimates a burden of 24000 envenomations, 3600 deaths, and 4600 amputations and other disabilities every year - approximately 15 times higher than previous estimates indicated. Snakebite in Guinea is complicated by an unusually high number of bites by neurotoxic cobras and mambas that account for roughly 30% of bites and over 70% of fatalities seen at the clinic every year. Some of the Guinean snake species can kill within an hour by paralyzing the respiratory muscles, and many patients die before ever reaching a clinic.

The Origins of the Clinic

After a young girl died in his arms with no medication or equipment to help change the outcome, Dr. Cellou Balde decided to dedicate his life towards developing a clinic specifically for the treatment of snakebites in Guinea. Using a small two bedroom home and a dedicated team who wanted to learn, Dr. Balde has created a safe haven for those affected by envenomations. Despite very little resources and an intermittent power supply, the treatment team has been able to reduce the mortality of snakebites from 30% to less than 5% using evidence based medicine and effective, field-stable antivenoms.