Educate children to prevent, report snakebites
A former United Nations (UN) Physician specialised in Tropical Medicine, Dr Akshay Rath, has observed that children are very vulnerable to snakebites and must be educated on how to prevent and report snakebites.
He explained that children were unable to tell the impending danger when snakes approached them and generally have a high level of curiosity.
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Further, when the snakes succeed in biting them, they release the same quantity of venom that they release into adults, which is usually too much poison for the small body mass of children.
Children under five years form a very high risk group.
“In the school curriculum, they have to teach it. It is the responsibility of adults at home to know where children are going and whether those places are safe. They need to also keep a constant watch on children when they are playing,” he said.
Dr Rath, who has led a team of research scientists to manufacture a snake anti-venom purposely for the African continent, gave the advice in an interview on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the UN which was observed in October this year.
He explained that if children are educated about snakes, they would among others, be able to tell the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes and, therefore, take the necessary caution, adding that they would also grow up into adulthood with that knowledge.
Snakebite cases
Snakebites, according to Dr Rath, is the third largest killer in the world coming after mosquitoes and human beings killing each other in incidents such as road accidents and wars.
Globally, he said, about 5.4 million people are bitten annually by snakes and about 100,000 die from it while close to 400,000 are amputated, paralysed or disabled by it through poor treatment.
In Africa, he added, more than one million snakebites are recorded each year, a figure which he said was not realistic because most of the cases were not recorded.
He said the people worst affected by snakebites were the poor from rural communities, agricultural workers and children.
In the context of Africa, malnutrition in children leading to anaemia has a very poor outcome on the cases of snakebites, making them significantly vulnerable.
Safety measures to prevent snakebites
On what the attitude of children towards snakes should be, he advised that they should not mess with a snake when they see it, “don’t throw a stone at them or try to hit them with a stick.
You don’t have to run because if you do, it will attract its attention to attack you. When you see a snake, stand still and gradually try to move away from the place.”
He said if the unfortunate happened and they were bitten by snakes, they should not panic because if they do, it would put them in more danger.
“The blood will start pumping faster which will put you into more severe condition quickly. So you should not panic. Be calm and you should be taken to the nearest medical facility quickly,” he advised.
Immobilisation of the bitten part during transport to hospital is highly advised.
Dr Rath spoke against the practice of sucking the affected area of snakebites, the use of herbs and other traditional methods in the treatment of snakebites, explaining that they were not scientifically proven.
He was quick to add that not every snakebite would end up killing the victim because if the snake is a non-poisonous one, nothing would happen.
However, if it is poisonous, then depending on whether the bite is dry or wet, it could be dangerous.
Throwing light on the dry and wet bite, Dr Rath explained that dry bites occur when the snake does not release venom into the body after biting its victim for which the affected person would not require snake anti-venom to treat the bite.
However, in the case of a wet bite, the snake injects poison into the person and endangers his/her life.
Symptoms of snakebites
He mentioned some of the symptoms people have when bitten by venomous snakes to be the development of red or pink eye colour, swelling with bleeding and pain around the area of the bite, nausea/vomiting, bleeding from gums, drowsiness, heavy eyelids and change in blood pressure.