Save Lives of Snakebite Victims in Rural India

In the beginning of March, a workshop was held for 22 doctors and nurses from rural hospitals in Gujarat and Mahrashtra. The workshop was conducted on request from Divya Chhaya Hospital in order to be able to improve management of snakebite patients. There were two sessions - one on snake identification and behavior and the other on snakebite treatment.

The snakebite treatment session was conducted by Dr. DC Patel from Dharampur in south Gujarat. He is a renowned snakebite expert in this region with over 20 years of experience and has also been honoured by the state government his services in the treatment of snakebite patients. Dr Patel is a goldmine of information and he selflessly shared his knowledge with the attendees at the workshop.

And the impact is already visible!

Just yesterday, we got a message from Divya Chhaya Hospital saying that they had received a snakebite patient who said he had been bitten by a snake that he suspected was a cobra but he was not sure. Following the treatment protocols that Dr. Patel had given them them, Dr Joma ascertained that almost 8 hours had elapsed since the bite and so, they cleaned and disinfected the wound, took precautions against tetanus and infections and put him under observation. They did NOT immediately administer anti-snake venom (ASV) as they had been doing earlier. When we spoke with hospital today, the patient had remained fine without any signs of envenomation. They had kept him admitted at the hospital under observation for 24 hours and he has now been discharged with wound care instructions.

We could not have asked for more!

Dr. Patel had conducted a comprehensive session where he spoke in detail about the symptoms of envenomation of each individual species of the Big4 (cobra, krait, Russell’s viper and saw scaled viper). He also gave detailed directions of lab tests to be conducted, the intervals at which they were to be repeated, and the supportive treatment to be administered and what to expect at each stage. This intensive classroom session along with the question-answer session resolved the doubts, fears, and misconceptions that the participants shared.

Krunal Trivedi from Nature Club Surat conducted the session on snakes, snake identification and behaviour at the beginning of the workshop. Starting off with common snakes of the Dangs, he moved on to telling the attendees about snake behaviour, for example, that kraits are nocturnal in habit and there are high chances that a patient coming in during the night might have suffered a krait bite.

The first thing that comes to a layperson’s mind on seeing a snake is, “Is it venomous?” But not many people can distinguish between venomous and nonvenomous snakes. Krunal observed that although the attendees were familiar with the term ‘Big4’ and the names of the common venomous snakes, they were not able to recognize the images of these snakes during the presentation.

So, an exercise in identification was done where sets of images were shown of the venomous snakes and possible nonvenomous or mildly venomous lookalikes - Russell’s viper with Indian rock python and common sand boa, cobra with the rat snake and banded racer, krait with the barred wolf snake and common wolf snake, and saw scaled viper with the cat snake. At the end of the session, most of the participants were able to spot the venomous species, but they were still asked to reach out to experts to confirm their identification while correlating with the patient’s symptoms.

Krunal also spoke about some simple measures to prevent snakebites that could be easily followed by the villagers. The participants were provided with a brochure on common snakes of Gujarat, posters of the Big4 snakes, snakebite first aid protocols, and a poster on snake behaviour myths and reality. Most of these handouts were in the local language which would make it easy for the general public to understand them. The attendees were eager to be able to pass on this information to the villagers and we are now in the process of preparing portable information kits to help them with that. 

With your support we will be able to conduct many more such workshops and awareness campaigns that can further bring down the incidences of snakebite.

We have just 3 more days left for this project to earn a permanent spot our space on this platform and we are almost there! 

Please do reach out to your friends and family and tell them about our project—you can share this link to our GlobalGiving project on social media, or just bring us up in conversation. Every little effort of yours has a very big impact on the ground.

Thank you again for being part of this change, for bringing us one step closer to achieving Zero Snakebite Mortality in India.

18-year-old Sangeeta was bitten in her foot by a cobra one August evening in her home in a tiny village in Chhattisgarh. She reached Anjali Health Centre (AHC) within an hour, but the venom had already spread and was starting to paralyse her body. Drooping eyelids, froth in her mouth, choking… She had reached the hospital just in time. Dr. Archana was just finishing supper when Sangeeta was brought in. This doctor has treated many snakebite patients but she remembers Sangeeta because of her amazing recovery.

Sangeeta was immediately given 10 vials of antivenom along with supportive meds and alternate suction-oxygen (AHC did not have a ventilator at that time). The response to timely and sufficient quantity of antivenom can be quite dramatic as was seen with Sangeeta. She showed signs of improvement within just 30 minutes and even began trying to help the doctor by mumbling “Idhar… idhar… (here… here…)” and slowly turning her head to direct suction! She was discharged from the hospital 3 days later.

But Sangeeta’s troubles were only beginning. The site of the snakebite on her foot had been badly affected by the venom with the tissue starting to die (necrosis). This eventually formed a wound almost the size of her open hand on the side of her foot around the site of the snakebite. She came every day to the hospital for the next 10-15 days to have dead tissue removed and get the wound disinfected and re-dressed. The wound had started to improve by then and Sangeeta was seen once a week for a couple of months until her family moved away from the area. 

Fortunately, necrotizing fasciitis as in Sangeeta’s case does not always occur, but when it does the patient suffers long and hard. The continuous wound care that such patients require can be a very big financial strain on the families and words cannot convey the mental and physical strain borne by the patient due to pain and disability.

Sangeeta has remained positive through all her pain and her smile is what keeps us going. We cannot thank you enough for choosing to support this project. Like Robert Frost said, this project also has many “miles to go”, and we have many more smiles to save - together.