The estimated deaths are about 16,000 for Uttar Pradesh, 5790 for Madhya Pradesh, and about 5230 for Rajasthan. This is an alarming figure which points out the failing public healthcare system in case of deaths caused when people are bitten by venomous species like snakes.
Despite such high numbers of deaths every year it is a satire that no national strategy exists to address the burden of Snakebite in India. Recently it has been recognized as a public health problem with the Indian Council of Medical Research launching a national survey to estimate the same. This is a welcome step in in the country when no national strategy is launched by the government to prevent Snakebites or to keep a check on the number of people succumbing due to Snakebites or getting disabled due to the venomous Snakebites.
It is high time which point towards the urgent requirement of strategy focusing on Snakebite prevention and strengthening of the healthcare system. Prevention needs to organise simple health awareness programs as snake bite is primarily due to snake-human-environment conflict tied to many socio-cultural-religious aspects. Understanding the conflict and code signing the community-based programs for the prevention of snakebites which can be tested through community-based cluster trials are required.
Traditionally there has been a lot of focus on Snake antivenom availability. An analysis of this system requires a focus on the comprehensive strengthening of the primary healthcare system focusing on both access and quality of care of all health system loopholes. There is a need to ensure antivenom availability at all levels of healthcare and instead of buying the intellectual property rights from the drugs of foreign companies we need to emphasize indigenous technology and treatment methods.
Having a national strategy towards Snakebite would mean that advancements are made towards the need of the country towards in health system strengthening and community-based programs as it mostly affects the rural poor. Moreover, cross benefits will also be realized in bringing light to the other tropical disease which affects the same communities.
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