A NON-VERBAL autistic boy, 4, has tragically died from a curable snake bite after being unable to tell anyone what had happened.

Italo Alves dos Santos had been playing at his grandma’s home in Equador city, Brazil, when a deadly rattlesnake bit his foot.

Despite predictably being in absolute agony, Italo wasn’t able to tell his family he was bitten.

Instead, the four-year-old could only point to his swollen ankle due to being non-verbal.

Italo’s worried family feared he had twisted his ankle and took him to the hospital.

Medical staffed scheduled an X-ray for the boy the following day – but it was too late.

As Italo’s condition steadily deteriorated overnight, his family hurriedly transported him to a major hospital located 20 miles away in Santa Luzia, in the Paraiba state.

Medics then immediately recognised the signs of venom poisoning.

But tragically Italo was still unable to tell them what had bitten him while he was at his grandma’s home.

The terrified family searched the house top-to-bottom before finding the rattler under the couch.

Medics were then able to begin anti-venom treatment.

But Italo was already critically weakened, and tragically died a day later.

The Ecuador city hall expressed in a statement: “We profoundly mourn the passing of little Italo and stand in solidarity with his family and friends during this challenging period.”

This tragic event follows a scientist’s daring efforts, where he endured bites from the world’s most lethal snakes over 200 times in the pursuit of developing a groundbreaking anti-venom.

Tim Friede has been injected by snake toxins over 850 times across his 18-year career and once even fell into a coma due to two cobra bites.

Snake venom kills up to 140,000 people each year and can leave over 420,000 people needing life altering amputations.

The cases remain so high due to their being no universal antivenom against all snakebites.

But after nearly two decades of death-defying work, Tim’s research may have finally paid off.

His antibodies have now been shown to protect against fatal doses from a wide range of dangerous species in recent animal tests.

The American initially allowed himself to be bitten to help further his career on YouTube where he handled a range of snakes.

He believed it would help him build up an immunity to protect himself when finding some of the world’s worst snakes.

His bizarre plan once left the former truck mechanic fighting for his life after two Egyptian cobra bites in quick succession left him in a coma for days.

Tim told the BBC he “didn’t want to die” and so when he awoke and was back to full health he used his second chance at life to help others survive.