Epidemiology of snakebite in Europe: comparison of data from the literature and case reporting

A better assessment of the incidence and mortality due to envenomation should improve the antivenom supply and consequently management of snakebites. Currently, in most countries, notification of snakebite is insufficient and irregular. An alternative is to consider data from the literature to estimate the incidence and mortality. The gaps and bias resulting from this method can be corrected using a meta-analytic model adjusted with a randomized coefficient, which provides an average incidence and mortality taking into account the relative weight and representativeness of each sample. The aim of the present study is to compare the results of the application of the meta-analytic model with the national notifications of snakebites in different European countries. To achieve this goal, a questionnaire was sent to health services of all European countries asking for the incidence, mortality and some parameters defining the population at risk of snakebites in Europe. Notifications were compared with the results of a recently published meta-analysis of literature data. Results showed an acceptable agreement, although significant differences in the incidence of snakebites occurred in some countries. The discussion emphasizes the limitations regarding notifications and underlines the potential biases that restrict the reliability of data from the literature. Finally, pending reliable notification of snakebites in all European countries, analyzing data from the literature is likely to be an acceptable and simple solution.