HYDERABAD: Snake bites are very common during tropical season, especially in Telangana. However, the State’s public healthcare centres do not seem to be well-equipped to treat snake bite cases.
With over 4,113 snake bites cases reported annually, the State stands at the third position, after Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, for snake bite casualties. While Urban Primary Healthcare Centres (UPHC) claim to have the polyvalent anti-snake venom serum kits (AVS), Basti Dawakhanas still are not equipped with it.
This seems to be ironical as Basti Dawakhanas had come up to compensate for areas where people did not have access to a healthcare centre.
The unavailability of AVS kits is one of the many problems in both Dawakhanas and UPHCs. In most of the UPHCs, the OPD hours are fixed till 4 pm. Some UPHCs do not even have doctors post 2 pm.
Dr Narayana Rao, District Medical and Health officer of Medchal district, said, “UPHCs do have AVS kits stocked with them but after the OPD hours, patients will have to find a UPHC that works 24/7 or a nearby government hospital.” The tragedy is that, in snake bite cases, immediate medication is necessary to save a victim’s life.
Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan, the senior principal scientist from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) explains, “In such cases, not only should primary health centres be stocked with the serum, but the doctors should also be able to distinguish each bite to know the required dosage.”