THE STATESMAN (Kolkata, India) 30 January 08 Snake bites scare docs, too
Kolkata: While 18,000 people on an average are bitten by snakes and 900 of them die from the poison in the state’s rural areas every year, doctors at the primary health centres mostly suffer from lack of confidence in administering the right dosage of anti-snake venom.
This revelation of the state of affairs in West Bengal’s healthcare system was made during a study conducted at Midnapore Medical College by a snakebite task force which included a WHO expert in snakebites, Dr Ian Simpson. In most cases, snakebites are treated according to textbooks prepared by Western writers and the procedures are not relevant to the reality in Asian countries. Often, Dr Simpson said, snakebite victims are administered ASV on the basis of swellings on the victim’s body, though there isn’t any trace of venom in the body. Again, while the ASV dosage has to be as much as the venom injected by a snake, doctors administer ASV either more or less than what is required. In some cases, doctors have no idea when they would have to stop administering it.
Doctors at the primary health centres are therefore reluctant to requisition ASV venom and refer the cases to district or state hospitals. This only worsens the situation, since snake-bite victims can’t “simply afford to delay treatment”, Dr Simpson said. “When a cobra bites, the victim has to be administered ASV latest within seven and a half hours,” he said.
Snake bites scare docs, too

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