Papua New Guinea's Snake Man

We follow a reptile handler-turned-scientist in his request to save thousands of people from deadly snakebites.



It’s a fearsome creature cloaked in superstition. The Papuan Taipan kills about 1,000 people in Papua New Guinea each year – more than communicable diseases in some parts of the country.

If bitten, a villager's only hope of survival is the expensive anti-venom that's rarely stocked in the isolated clinics. Their life saver is the "snake man" - Australian herpetologist and toxinologist, David Williams.

Williams' dangerous work handling the deadly Taipan is paying off - he has developed a cheaper anti-venom.