Snakebites Hit 1 in 20 Villagers Near Ghana’s Kakum Forest, Survey Finds

Nearly one in twenty residents of villages bordering Ghana’s Kakum Conservation Area has been bitten by a snake at some point in their lives, according to a cross-sectional household survey published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The study, led by Derek Anamaale Tuoyire and colleagues, documented 394 lifetime snakebites among 8,518 people enumerated across 18 fringe communities in the Central Region, a lifetime occurrence of 4.63 percent (95% CI: 4.18–5.07). Bites were not rare events confined to the distant past: 164 people (1.93 percent) reported a snakebite in the preceding five years, and 41 (0.48 percent) had been bitten within the previous year.

The survey ran between April and May 2024 and used a two-stage sampling approach to enumerate households for snakebite victims. The data collection instrument was pretested in a non-study community of 30 participants, with Cronbach’s alpha values between 0.72 and 0.86 for key scales, indicating acceptable internal consistency. Analysis combined descriptive statistics with chi-square tests for bivariate associations and multivariable logistic regression producing adjusted odds ratios with 95 percent confidence intervals.

The typical victim was a middle-aged farmer. The mean age of the 394 victims was 44.69 years (SD ± 18.64), and most were female (212 of 394, or 53.81 percent), married (231 of 394, or 58.63 percent), and engaged in farming (289 of 394, or 73.35 percent). The bites themselves followed a strikingly consistent pattern: 258 of 394 (65.48 percent) occurred in farms or forests, and 345 of 394 (87.56 percent) struck the lower limbs, the body parts most exposed when people work the land on foot.

First aid was common but often questionable in form. Some 295 of 394 victims (74.87 percent) applied some form of first aid, and the most frequent measure was a tourniquet, used by 103 of the 295 who applied first aid (34.92 percent).

Access to care showed a persistent gap between being bitten and being treated. Overall, 239 of 394 victims (60.66 percent) sought treatment, and of those, 170 (71.13 percent) accessed formal healthcare facilities. Among treatment seekers, 124 of 239 (51.88 percent) travelled by motor vehicle while 97 (40.59 percent) went on foot. Delay was built into the journey: 92 of 239 (38.49 percent) waited at least one hour before setting out for care, and 89 of 239 (37.24 percent) spent at least an hour travelling to reach it.

Outcomes were largely favorable but not without cost. Following their bites, 373 of 394 victims (94.67 percent) recovered, 15 (3.81 percent) experienced disability, and 6 (1.52 percent) died. Even at the lower bound, the survey suggests that in these communities snakebite is not a negligible hazard but a recurring occupational risk with measurable mortality and disability.

The regression analysis identified who was most likely to be bitten in farm or forest settings. Compared with victims aged under 20 years, those aged 30 to 39 years had higher adjusted odds of being bitten in a farm or forest location (AOR = 3.39, 95% CI: 1.07–10.67). Farming itself was associated with increased odds of farm or forest snakebite (AOR = 1.88, 95% CI: 1.04–3.40).

Age also shaped whether victims reached formal care. Victims aged 20 to 29 years (AOR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.05–0.88) and those aged 60 or older (AOR = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.02–0.69) had lower adjusted odds of seeking facility-based care compared with victims under 20 years.

Snakebite envenomation is recognized by the World Health Organization as a neglected tropical disease, yet epidemiological data remain scarce in Ghana, particularly in communities fringing protected forest areas such as the Kakum Conservation Area. The authors argue that snakebites constitute a major public health concern in communities fringing forested conservation areas, especially for people whose livelihoods revolve around agriculture, and they call for collaborative efforts among primary health authorities, forest conservation managers, and community leaders to design and implement interventions that avert snakebite incidents and improve outcomes for victims.

The study’s design carries limits worth keeping in view. It is a cross-sectional survey relying on self-reported lifetime recall of bites, so it measures reported occurrence rather than clinically confirmed envenomation, and it covers a specific set of 18 communities in one region during a two-month window. Within those bounds, the numbers give Ghanaian health planners a quantified baseline: who is bitten, where, how quickly they seek care, and what fraction never reach a facility at all.

Subject of Research: Snakebite epidemiology and health-seeking behavior in communities fringing the Kakum Conservation Area in Ghana

Article Title: Snakebite epidemiology and health-seeking behavior in fringe communities of the Kakum Conservation Area in Ghana

Article References: Tuoyire, D. A., Baatiema, L., Biney, R. P., Deikumah, J. P., Awoonor-Williams, J. K., & Gyakobo, M. K. (2026). Snakebite epidemiology and health-seeking behavior in fringe communities of the Kakum Conservation Area in Ghana. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 20(10), e0013288. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0013288

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0013288

Keywords: snakebite, Ghana, Kakum Conservation Area, neglected tropical diseases, health-seeking behavior, public health, farmers, cross-sectional survey, envenomation, rural health, epidemiology, health-seeking