OBJECTIVES : Snakebite envenoming, a high priority Neglected Tropical Disease categorized by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been considered as a poverty-related disease that requires greater global awareness and collaboration to establish strategies that effectively decrease economic burdens. This prompts the need for a comprehensive review of the global literature that summarizes the global economic burden and a description of methodology details and their variation to provide recommendations for future studies.

METHODS : We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and Econlit for articles published from inception to 31 July 2019. Original articles reporting costs or full economic evaluation related with snakebites were included. The methods and reporting quality were assessed. Costs were presented in United States Dollars (USD) in 2018.

RESULTS : Twenty-three cost of illness studies and three economic evaluation studies related to snakebites were included. Majority of studies (78.26%) were conducted in Low- and Middle-income countries. Most cost of illness studies (19/23, 82.61%) were done using hospital-based data of snakebite patients. Only four studies (17.39%) estimated costs of snakebites in communities. Five studies (21.74%) used societal perspective estimating both direct and indirect costs. Only three studies (13.04%) estimated annual national economic burdens of snakebite. The annual national total costs of snakebite varied drastically across countries. Quality of the cost of illness studies were varied and substantially under-reported. All three economic evaluation studies were cost-effectiveness analysis using decision tree model. Two of them assessed cost-effectiveness of having full access to antivenom and reported cost-effective findings.

CONCLUSIONS : Economic burdens of snakebite were underestimated. Hospital data should be collected along with community survey to ensure the accurate estimation of national economic burdens of all snakebite victims in the country. How to make antivenoms available and affordable to snakebite victims should be emphasized more in future research.