GS Paper 2
Topics Covered: Issues related to Health.
Context:
National Snakebite Awareness Summit was recently organised in virtual mode by the Integrated Health and Wellbeing Council, New Delhi.
- The summit was held on the eve of the International Snakebite Awareness Day, observed on 19 September every year.
What’s the issue?
India is registering an alarming number of deaths due to snakebite. Most of the deaths are preventable with greater awareness and accessible healthcare.
- There is no mechanism of management in the peripheral system to treat snakebites – doctors and paramedical staff need to learn snakebite management but there are no modules.
What needs to be done?
- Establishment of a dialysis centre attached to the PHCs to offer immediate treatment to those with renal failure due to snakebite.
- Region-specific treatment protocols to treat snakebite victims and to administer the anti-venom injection, when required.
- Besides, we need to include tribal healers who have the knowledge of traditional medicine and medicinal plants.
- Snakebite should be a notifiable disease and industry can bring in easy solutions but we need help from policymakers in doing that.
- Need more localized surveys as preventing snakebite will bring equity – most affected people include children working with parents on fields, villagers and tribals.
Snakebite cases in India:
- In the 20-year period from 2000 to 2019, the country recorded 1.2 million snakebite deaths with an average of 58,000 deaths every year.
- As much as 97 per cent of these deaths happened in villages and more than half of the dead were men in their most productive years.
Insta Curious:
The World Health Organization has added snakebite and the resultant envenoming to its priority list of neglected tropical diseases. Know more about it here.
Sources: the Hindu.
