Sao Paulo (AFP)
Grabbing the deadly snake by the neck just behind the jaws, Fabiola de Souza massages her venom glands to extract a few drops that will save lives in Brazil, where thousands of people are bitten each year.
Fabiola and colleagues at the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo (Southeast) take this toxin from thousands of snakes kept in captivity to produce an antivenom.
The product is then distributed by the Ministry of Health to clinics across the country.
The generally hot and humid climate of Brazil is particularly conducive to venomous snakes. There are dozens of species, including the jararaca, one of the most dangerous.
Nearly 29,000 people were bitten in 2018, and more than a hundred died, according to official figures.
States with the highest bite rates are those in the Amazon Basin, where it can take hours to reach a health facility with antivenom.
Once a month, the venom of each snake is extracted during a delicate and potentially very dangerous process.
Equipped with a hook, Fabiola delicately leaves one of the reptiles of its plastic box and places it in a can filled with carbon dioxide.
In a few minutes, the snake falls asleep.
"It's less stress for the animal," she says.
The snake is then placed on a steel bench in a room where the temperature exceeds 25 degrees.
Fabiola only has a few minutes to extract the venom safely before the animal starts stirring again.
"It's important to be scared because people who are afraid are paying attention," she says.
- Shortage of antivenom -
The snake diet is composed of mice and rats raised at the institute and killed before being served once a month.
After extracting the venom, Fabiola weighs and measures the snake before putting it back in its box.
The antivenom is produced by injecting small amounts of poison into farm-based horses to trigger an immune response that produces antibodies that attack toxins.
Blood is then taken from the horses and the antibodies are extracted to create a serum that will be administered to the victims of bites. Without that, they could die.
The institute's project manager, Fan Hui Wen, says the site produces all of Brazil's antivenoms, which is 250,000 bottles of 10 to 15 milliliters a year.
The South American giant also provides free serum to several countries in the region.
At present, the idea is to sell the antivenom serum abroad to help counter the global shortage, especially in Africa.
Some 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Between 81,000 and 138,000 die, and many more undergo amputations and other permanent effects due to the toxin.
To reduce the number of deaths and injuries, the WHO unveiled a plan earlier this year that requires an acceleration of quality antivenom production.
Brazil is at the heart of this strategy. He could start exporting serum next year, says Fan Hui Wen.
"There is interest in the Butantan Institute to also supply other countries because of the global crisis of antivenom production," she says.
© 2019 AFP