20 December 2018 – SciDev.Net – the world’s leading source of reliable and authoritative news, views and analysis about science and technology for global development – is delving deeper into the issues that matter with the relaunch of its popular Spotlight series.
Spotlights are collections of articles, including interviews and features, which give readers a more in-depth analysis of an issue to see how current events might unfold based upon what happened in the past.
The first of the four-a-year series: ‘The Scourge of Snakebite’, which aims to get under the skin of some of the most pressing issues in global development, gets to grips with the thorny issue of snakebites that affect around 5.4 million people every year.
Snakebites annually kill around 130,000 victims while some 400,000 people end up with long-term disabilities such as blindness, disfigurement or amputation.
The latest Spotlight, the first for over two years, is timely because the World Health Organization (WHO) has now declared snakebites a key neglected disease and is putting forward a plan to deal with it.
It considers India’s response to the snakebite scourge as well as how poverty in Africa could be fuelling the problem. Articles which offer hope for snakebite victims include a look at hi-tech antidotes and envenoming facts and figures.
Ben Deighton, Managing Editor at SciDev.Net said, ‘The Spotlight assembles eight hard-hitting articles from around the world to look at what the solutions could be to this urgent problem – including the use of human antibodies to create powerful antivenom, and the development of a global knowledge exchange.
‘This Spotlight is an important development for SciDev.Net, showing that as part of CABI, the news service is going from strength to strength while still maintaining editorial independence from its parent organization.’
SciDev.Net plans to publish around four Spotlights per year going forward into 2019.
About SciDev.Net
SciDev.Net is the world’s leading source of reliable and authoritative news, views and analysis about science and technology for global development.
Its mission is to use independent journalism to help individuals and organisations apply science to decision-making in order to drive equitable, sustainable development and poverty reduction.
While being part of CABI, SciDev.Net operates independently with its content overseen by an independent Editorial Advisory Committee whose role is to ensure its editorial independence protocol is adhered to.
Find out more at SciDev.Net
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