Rajshahi Medical College (RMC) Hospital has opened a specialised ward for snakebite patients. The hospital authorities took the step to reduce deaths from snakebite and ensure quick treatment.

RMC Hospital director Brigadier General FM Shamim Ahammad opened the specialised ward on Thursday (October 23).

The 12-bed ward, built to high dependency unit (HDU) standard, has been set up where the hospital's old canteen used to be. Snakebite patients will also be treated there for breathing difficulties, heart failure and other complications.

The hospital authorities said the ward has beds for eight male and four female patients, though emergency treatment will also be given outside the ward when needed.

Abu Shahin Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, associate professor in the hospital's medicine department, has been made the ward's focal person. He is currently doing a PhD on Russell's viper venom, which is in its final stages.

According to hospital data, a total of 1,205 snakebite patients were treated from January to October this year. Of them, 260 were bitten by venomous snakes; the rest were bitten by non-venomous snakes.

Thirty of the patients who came to the hospital died. Of them, 10 died of Russell's viper bites; the rest died of kalach, keute and gokhra bites.

Hospital sources said that to reduce deaths, hospital director Brigadier General Shamim Ahammad decided to set up a specialised ward for snakebite patients, as had been done for dengue, Covid and Nipah virus. Doctors and nurses were selected in advance and trained according to the "Snakebite National Guideline", and then the HDU-standard ward was prepared.

The ward's focal person, Dr Abu Shahin Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, said: "From 2016 to 2023, the death rate from Russell's viper bites was 27 per cent. It has now fallen a lot thanks to improved treatment. The new specialised ward will provide integrated treatment. Doctors and nurses will be on duty around the clock, and enough antivenom will be kept in stock. So the death rate will fall further."

He said each antivenom dose for snakebite patients costs about Tk 13,000. One dose needs 10 vials of antivenom, and many patients need more than one dose. But patients will get these medicines from the hospital completely free. Treatment will start as soon as a patient arrives at the ward, without a minute's delay.

RMC Hospital director Brigadier General FM Shamim Ahammad said: "Snakebite patients often come to the hospital late. Before, they were also treated in a corner of a large ward. Now, with a separate ward, that won't happen. There will be medical emergency unit-HDU facilities here, with doctors and nurses present 24 hours a day."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.