A team of clinicians and herpetologists in Assam has favoured a region-specific antivenom for effective management of snakebite treatment, pointing out that the available polyvalent antivenoms was able to save patients bitten by Cobra and Kraits but were ineffective in neutralising the pit viper venoms in the State. Based on an analysis of snake bite cases in a hospital, they noted that Pit vipers were responsible for the maximum number of snakebites (66.2%) followed by monocled cobra (21.7%) in the State.
They had studied the cases of snake bites reported at the Demow Model Hospital in Sivasagar, Assam where about 1011 patients were admitted in the last five years, of which 13.7% were venomous bites.
Scientists and research scholars from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Tezpur University, Tezpur Assam, and Amrita School of Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Kochi led by toxicologist and Director of IASST Prof Ashis K Mukherjee were involved in the study.
It was in collaboration with clinicians Dr. Surajit Giri and his colleagues at Demow Government Community Health Centre.
The researchers have also called for a specific protocol by forming Venom Response Teams (VRT) comprising clinicians, herpetologists, and volunteers for effectively managing snakebites in a rural health centre.Prof. Mukherjee said, "this study is an eye-opener to the country's other primary and tertiary health centres to adopt the same prototype for reducing snakebite mortality and morbidity." Sadly, the snakebite data remains elusive in Assam. Epidemiological studies help estimate the incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates associated with snakebites, which is crucial for government agencies' public health planning and resource allocation.