Covid-19 and Foundation-sponsored Snakebite Research: an Update
It has been no surprise that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on the broad spectrum of world medical research as Covid 19 has become the priority.
Hamish Ogston Fellow, Dr Tom Lamb, had to leave Myanmar in March 2020 on FCO advice and, being an infectious diseases specialist, he was soon recruited to a Covid unit in Manchester. We are pleased to report that he returned to Myanmar in mid August 2020.
The HOF awarded twenty £5000 grants in early 2020 to successful applicants for research projects in snakebite. This initiative is directed at assisting junior researchers and clinicians and is run by the Global Snakebite Initiative (GSI). Interim reports from the beneficiaries of the awards throw the Covid associated problems into very sharp relief. They clearly demonstrate the reach of the pandemic as the same obstacles are shared wherever our junior researchers and clinicians are at work: Asia; Africa; South America; and Europe.
What are these problems? The most heart wrenching is that some have lost close relatives to Covid-19 and that the traditional highly emotional traditional burial ceremonies could not take place. Supervisors and mentors in the research institutions have become ill. Projects involving community education and the collection of data about the community experience of snakebite have been stopped in their tracks due to a ban on travel and shutting down accommodation for the researchers in the field. Many have decided to take opportunities to rush home to their families and elderly loved ones deemed at greatest risk. Research laboratories are restricted by social distancing requirements and an inability to acquire materials.
It has emerged is that the incidence of snakebite in some villages in India is rapidly increasing as the men are returning to their villages from their meagre employment in the towns. They go to work in the fields and maybe the sheer force of increased human numbers has increased the human refuse which attracts rats which then, in turn, attract the snakes. To escape Covid-19 and then die or be badly maimed by snakebite would seem very unjust. But justice is not dispensed in such a pandemic.
The HOF wishes to send a message to its frustrated beneficiary researchers and clinicians with a simple message. First, we want to reassure all that we fully appreciate the current problems as nobody, wherever they are, is exempt from the direct or indirect effects of Covid-19. Secondly, nobody must put themselves at unnecessary risk of infection in pursuing their projects. Thirdly, if the timeline of projects has to be extended, so be it. We are far more interested in ensuring that projects are carried out to the satisfaction of the researchers so that the data is sufficient to support meaningful conclusions and advances in knowledge fit for publication.
Michael Vaughan
For any further updates please refer to dedicated Covid-19 snakebite research webpage
Michael Vaughan - Health Advisor and Project Manager at The Hamish Ogston Foundation