SUNDAY TRIBUNE (Ibadan, Nigeria) 10 February 08 Anti-snake venom company in Gombe soon (Ishola Michael)
Gombe: An anti-snake venom manufacturing company is to be established in the snake-infested area of Kaltungo Local Government Area of Gombe State by a U.K. based organisation known as Echitab Study Group Nigeria and United Kingdom, with the aim of checking the dangers posed to the inhabitants of the area by snakes.
This was disclosed by the Head of Special Projects, Federal Ministry of Health, Professor Abdulsalami Nasidi, while on a last clinical trial visit on anti-snake venom at the General Hospital, Kaltungo.
Abdulsalami Nasidi said that Federal Government has given approval to the Echitab Study Group to establish a West African Centre in Kaltungo Local Government Area, adding that when the centre is fully established, it would train medical personnel from West Africa on how to manage snakebite in patients.
He, however, commended Governor Mohammed Danjuma Goje for the support given to the study group, disclosing that the team is reciprocating the gesture by proposing to establish the two centres and the supply of 1,700 vials to the Kaltungo General Hospital.
In his own speech, the team leader of the Echitab Study Group, Professor David Warrel from the Oxford University, United Kingdom, said the anti-venom clinical trial which started over thirty years ago, has resulted to the production of two excellent anti-snake venoms.
He said that one of the two drugs, which is Echitab “G”, is capable of curing almost all the snakebites in the Kaltungo Snake Belt and the neighbouring states, stating that the three strategies in fighting snake bite include community education, training of health personnel and the provision of tools, adding that when these elements are put together, the treatment of snakebites would be a success story, especially in the area.
Anti-snake venom company in Gombe soon

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• NGA Press: A-Venom company in Gombe - W von Papineäu, Tue Feb 12 06:56:55 2008