The status of taxonomy and venom in sea snakes

currently unavailable Snakebite Envenoming: Moving towards improved control Bernadette Abela-Ridder Rabies Lead & Team Leader, Neglected Zoonotic Diseases, Department of the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland The WHO added snakebite envenoming (SBE) to the list of Neglected Tropical Diseases in July 2017, following recommendations from the NTD Department’s Strategic Technical Advisory Group after an application from several Member States coordinated by the Government of Costa Rica. The role of the WHO NTD Department and the process for initiating efforts to reduce the burden of SBE will be explained. A working group will be established to assist WHO in developing a road map plan for the control of SBE. The plan will be presented to a meeting of stakeholders in Geneva in the first half of 2018 and subsequently published. WHO hopes the plan will enable resources to be identified and secured to facilitate implementation of the plan. In parallel, Member States have announced the intention to present the WHO Executive Board (EB) with a draft resolution on SBE at the next meeting of the EB in January 2018. A new snakebite website has been developed and will be launched at this meeting. A call for expressions of interest in membership of the SBE-Working Group is also announced today. Recent WHO initiatives to ensure quality and efficacy of snake antivenoms