KATHMANDU, May 4: Unlike in the previous years snake-bite patients will not have to face a shortage of anti-snake venom this year, government officials have said.
According to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD), the government has managed to purchase anti-snake venom for 30,000 people. "There will not be a scarcity of anti-snake venom this year," said Abinash Prasad Singh, senior officer at the EDCD. "The medicine worth more than Rs 600 million will be purchased from India. Each vial of the medicine costs IRs 2,000," he added.
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In the last fiscal year, a total of 4,268 people were bitten by snakes across the country, according to the EDCD. Among them, 3,268 bites were non-venomous and 1,018 were venomous bites. Of the total poisonous bites, 985 cases were successfully treated and 35 died.
"Nobody will die if they are taken to treatment centers in time," said Singh. "Most of those who died were brought dead to the treatment centers," he added. "Cobras and kraits are venomous snakes. In the recent years, the cases of snake bites are found round the year while it used to happen only in the summer until a few years ago."
There are 81 treatment centers available at primary health centers and district and zonal hospitals, Nepal Army treatment centers and Red Cross branches across the country.
