Snakebite deaths rate increasing as victims arrive late for treatment

Tilottama (Rupandehi) - The Butwal-based Lumbini Zonal Hospital recorded 67 deaths from snakebite in the past seven years. 

This number was 19 in the current fiscal alone and the hospital said that the cases of snakebite deaths are increasing as the victims do not get timely treatment due to the tendency of seeking treatment at the local level with the help of shamans. 

According to Hospital officiating medical superintendent Dr Rajendra Sanjel, victims arriving late for the treatment is one of the main reasons behind the increasing number of fatalities. 

The hospital received 155 snakebite patients last fiscal and of them 19 succumbed, hospital information office Laxmi Raj Regmi said. This number was 149 in the previous fiscal year, out of which 13 died. 

Of the victims, some 85 percent were bitten by a poisonous snake known as 'Raja snake' and remaining 10 percent were of the cobra bite victims. 

Though snakebite victims mainly from Rupandehi and Nawalparasi arrive here for treatment, the hospital receives patients from Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Dang also. 

The hospital sometimes faces the shortage of anti-snake venom that is used in the treatment of snakebite due to the increasing flow of patients and it has to refer patients to other health facilities.