Mumbai: With an estimated 75,000-plus reported and unreported deaths due to snakebites occurring in India every year, a Mumbai crusader’s creation, ‘Snakebite Assistant’, has the potential to create public awareness and also help manage snakebite incidents.
The “Snakebite Assistant” was launched in India by Priyanka Kadam, Founder-President of Snakebite Healing & Education Society (SHE-India), with collaboration by global experts — Professor Mauro Bodio from Switzerland, and his associate and a medico, Thomas Junghanss from Germany.
The Bodio-Junghanss duo has prepared a database, the VAPAGuide.info, a veritable encyclopaedia covering almost all venomous and poisonous animals worldwide.
Kadam said that the first of its kind, the Snakebite Assistant, with support from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, is aimed at educating the masses, creating awareness particularly among the youngsters about this alarming medical emergency, and helping doctors/nurses/others on how to manage such contingencies.
According to Kadam snakebite is not just a rural problem but an urban concern as well.
“Even a bustling city like Mumbai has a venomous snake population within its limits. However, most people do not know how to identify the few venomous serpents occurring in their locality,” said Kadam.
In case of any snakebite medical emergency, the Snakebite Assistant guides the user through all relevant information and possible treatment approaches that can save valuable time and also a precious life, anytime, anywhere, Kadam said.
“It’s not just the snakebite deaths in the country — with the highest man-animal conflict incidence in the world — which is a matter of concern, but also for the survivors whose lives are virtually shattered with a variety of physical, mental complications and financial problems arising due to a venomous snakebite,” said Kadam.
She adds that a majority of such deaths can be prevented with proper knowledge, the dos and don’ts in a snakebite situation and quick access to treatment without panicking.
Here, the Snakebite Assistant helps the victims and the ‘first responders’, the paramedics and medical personnel in the PHC and rural hospitals with details of the region-specific snakes to facilitate the treatment.
India is home to over 300 species of snakes of which over five dozen are venomous out of which around 16-18 species have reported fatalities.
However, the maximum deaths occur due to the big four venomous snakes that are found living close to human habitations, which are: the Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja), Common Krait (Bungarus Caeruleus), Russell’s Viper (Daboia Russelii) and the Saw-scaled Viper (Echis Carinatus).
These four snakes are found in the vicinity of human settlements, including parts of Mumbai with green cover.
Some six months after its official launch, the Snakebite Assistant has recorded 10K-plus downloads with extremely positive feedback from users across India and how it has helped educate them to save lives, said Kadam.
The App provides instructions on stabilising and transporting the victim, the dos and don’ts, the timeline when signs/symptoms of envenoming set in, how to find help, it also guides the medicos on how to identify the kind of snake that has bitten, whether it is neurotoxic or hemotoxic, the line of treatment through emergency medicines, etc.
SHE-India has also made a series of videos on Snakebite Prevention and Dos and don’ts available on the Snakebite Assistant in a dozen Indian regional languages.
The NGO also runs an awareness poster campaign to help the common citizens identify the most common venomous snakes they are likely to encounter in their localities and how to avoid snake bites.
“Since this is such a common medical emergency problem in India, we appeal to the government to introduce a special chapter on basic snake bite management at the high school level by all boards, and in all paramedic, nursing and medical courses to ensure well trained medical professionals that can proactively treat and manage patients. The Snakebite Assistant can serve as a teaching tool for the educational institutions.”
–IANS