Thefts of Anti-Venom Increase Risk of Papua New Guinea Snakebite Deaths

Excerpt from report by Papua New Guinea newspaper The National website on 14 February

Thousands of people, including children, may have died needlessly because of massive theft and corruption. Port Moresby-based snake expert Dr David Williams gave details of the scam to The National yesterday as the Australian Broadcasting Commission [Corporation] prepares to screen a dramatic documentary exposing corruption in the Papua New Guinea Health Department, involving snake antidote, on its “Foreign Correspondent” programme next Tuesday night [19 February].

Papua New Guinea has some of the highest rates of snake bites in the world, and in some areas, more villagers die from snake bites than from malaria and HIV/AIDS.

Often victims can’t get help because of poor transport and bad roads, and many medical clinics don’t stock expensive anti-venom. The antidote is imported from Australia, but at such inflated prices that the Papua New Guinea Health Department pays the equivalent of 2,000 Australian dollars (4,500 kina) a vial. The high demand for anti-venom has helped create an illegal market, where doctors are accused of stealing anti-venom from medical stores and selling it back to their hospitals.

Health Minister Sasa Zibe makes an appearance on “Foreign Correspondent” as he buys a vial of “suspect” Indian anti-venom at a Port Moresby pharmacy for 2,500 kina as he is filmed on hidden camera.

Dr Williams told of how anti-venom worth 4,500 kina a vial was stolen from the Area Medical Store at Badili in Port Moresby and sold to pharmaceutical companies, who in turn sold the medication at hugely inflated prices to the unsuspecting public.

Dr Williams provided names of three major pharmaceutical companies – one of which is directly linked to a senior Health Department official – to The National. He also told of a well-known Port Moresby doctor (named) who had offered vials of anti-venom to the emergency ward of Port Moresby General Hospital at 8,000 kina a vial, the question being where the doctor got the anti-venom from. [passage omitted]

All these are happening as thousands of people all over the country continue to die from bites by the deadly Papua taipan – the most venomous snake in the world – death adders and other snakes simply because anti-venom that is supposed to treat them is being stolen by Health Department workers in Port Moresby.

“I am the only person in PNG who is speaking up for the needs of snake-bite patients, and I see this as an important role, because unless awareness of the problem is raised, and unless the corrupt individuals, who are profiting from people’s suffering by stealing anti-venoms and selling them on the black-market are targeted by someone like myself, nothing will ever change,” Dr Williams told The National.

“There needs to be a specific investigation into the issue, and that investigations needs to be conducted in such a manner that the people who are implicated can be referred for prosecution.” [passage omitted]

Dr Williams could not put a figure to lives lost because of this scam but [said] “we do know that about 12 per cent of the anti- venom delivered to the Area Medical Store at Badili between 1998 and 2003 disappeared without trace. This amounts to 416 vials of anti- venom worth nearly 1.24m kina. Effectively, this means that 416 snakebite patients may have missed out on receiving anti-venom at a health centre or hospital because of this discrepancy.

“At the same time, the Health Department paid a local wholesaler for 2,061 vials of anti-venom, yet, Area Medical Store records show 1,843 vials having been delivered. This leaves a discrepancy of 218 vials worth over 660,000 kina. Again, this equals another 218 snake bite patients who could have received anti-venom, but did not.” [passage omitted]

“Half of the snakebite victims in this country are children. The child who dies because of no anti-venom, who knows, one day he could have become a prime minister or a scientist. We owe it to the future generations to sort this out.”

Meanwhile, Dr Williams was almost killed by a Papua taipan during the shooting of the “Foreign Correspondent” documentary. [passage omitted] Minutes after the bite, Dr Williams was dangerously ill. There was no chance of survival without anti-venom. He was rushed to a hospital, which had only one vial left. Dr Williams’s near-death experience was a striking demonstration of the alarming shortage of anti-venom in PNG.

Originally published by The National website, Port Moresby, in English 14 Feb 08.

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