CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, June 20: The government hospitals around the city are well prepared for monsoons as they have equipped themselves with Snake Venom Antiserum (ASVS) to deal with snake bites across the city.
The Ranchi civil surgeon Vinod Kumar informed lagatar24.com that all the government hospitals around the city have a good stock of ASVS along with anti-rabies injections.
“Since monsoon has already arrived in the city, cases of human-snake conflicts are going to increase in the coming months. In order to deal with such cases, we have a good stock of ASVS in all the government hospitals in the city. These are mainly for the four venomous snakes which are found in this area. For non-venomous snakes, we just give a shot of Tetvac,” he said.
He further said that every year, most of the ASVS vials get expired as the cases of snake bites are less compared to the vials available in the hospital. The life of these antivenoms is just 11 to 12 months after which they should not be used.
He added that snakes such as spectacled cobra, common krait and Russell Viper are found in this region and are highly venomous. In case of a snake bite, one should only visit a government hospital as soon as possible in order to survive as antivenoms are the only medicine which can save a person from a venomous snake bite.
As per the research done by the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences, on average, a total of 350 snakebite cases have been reported in Jharkhand in the last two years.
