Dear Colleagues,

Globally, venomous bites and stings are significant public health issues. In general, the most affected are the rural farming communities in tropics who mostly have poor access to healthcare. As a result of the socioeconomic factors of the vulnerable communities, which limit reporting, accurate estimates of the global burden of venomous bites and stings remain far from reality. Even presently, many victims of bites and stings seek treatment from healers and traditional practitioners, and hence never appear in the national health statistics of their countries.

Based on what is available so far, the knowledge-base on the effects of bites and stings on human health has largely been polarized towards the acute effects of envenoming. Even those who seek treatment from hospitals following a bite or a sting are rarely followed-up once they received treatment and discharged from the hospital. Therefore, the burden of the long-term effects of bites and stings is poorly understood. The available few studies on the long-term effects of snakebites do suggest diverse long-term effects, such as severe local necrosis, resulting amputations, blindness, chronic kidney disease, psychological effects, and endocrine anomalies, which continue to compromise the quality of life of the survivor. Long-term effects could show a significant variation of the nature and the severity, in different parts of the world, considering the diversity of the animals involved in the bites and stings.

This Special Issue of Toxins presents the most recent data on the long-term effects of bites and stings, covering a wide range of topics, including epidemiology, clinical effects, and mechanistic insights on the clinical effects.

Dr. Anjana Silva
Guest Editor

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• long-term effects
• snakebite
• envenoming
• disability
• amputation
• necrosis
• blindness