A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF MORTALITY AND LONG TERM MORBIDITY IN SNAKEBITE VICTIMS

Snakebite is animportant medical emergency and occupational hazard in the rural tropicsespecially India where agriculture is a major source of employment.

India has the highest number of deathsdue to snakebites with 81,000 envenomations and 11,000 deaths every year ;although the actual incidence may be much higher as many cases go unreported invillages. Despite the high mortality, snakebite remains a neglected publichealth problem.

The case fatality rate in India variesfrom 1.7-20%.  The wide variation could be due tonon-availability of medical facilities in remote rural areas compelling manyvictims to resort to primitive traditional methods of treatment. Quickrecognition and treatment with anti snake venom (ASV) is essential in order torestore coagulation and reverse other signs of systemic envenomation and thusavoid severe morbidity and mortality. However a review of current literatureshows a lack of monitoring of morbidity related to snakebite envenomation inIndia. This is unfortunate as most of the snakebite victims are in theeconomically productive age group and thus the economic impact of thedisability is likely to be high.

The goal in treatment of snakebiteenvenomation should be to prevent or reduce all grades of injury, not justthose that are life threatening. The first step in this direction would be toestimate the morbidity produced by snakebite envenomation so that effectivesteps may be taken in the treatment.

        Hence thestudy aims to determine mortality and long term morbidity in snakebite victimsadmitted to Fr Muller Medical College Hospital.