Essays on Venomous Snakes

SNAKE-BITE MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY IN INDIA

Mortality and morbidity should no longer be a common result of snake-bites in India but this health hazard is still a tragic problem. Montiero (et al., 2012) noted that although “snake-bite is an important and preventable health hazard” envenomations around the world are high and result in 10s of thousands of death every year. India is considered to have the highest numbers of poisonous snake-bites each year which result in medical problems, many due to complications from coagulation, resulting in thousands of needless deaths. Alirol (et al., 2010) stated that except for antivenom production “snake-bite envenoming . . . shares all the characteristics of a ...

Public Health Strategies to Improve Snakebite Treatment

There are over 3,000 species of snakes in the world; most bite, 600 are poisonous; some 200 are medically important (World Health Organization). In 1954, Swaroop and Grab published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the global distribution and prevalence of snakebites. By their own admission, their data represented but a rough estimate of the worldwide prevalence of snakebites; nevertheless, the magnitude of the snakebite problem in certain areas of the world was immediately apparent to the World Health Organization. The highest figures reported were for Asia, followed by those for South America. Later research (Gutierrez, 2010; ...