Most snakes in our country are not venomous. Yet about 7,500 people die of snakebite in the country every year, which is no small number. So many people die not because of the venom but because patients and their relatives are unaware. Most snakebite patients die because they lack even minimal knowledge of what to do after a bite.

One incident will make this easier to understand. It happened in November 2023. Students and a teacher (huzur) were asleep in the hostel of a madrasa in Chapainawabganj. At around 2am one of them woke up, feeling that something had bitten him beside the neck. He switched on the light and called the others. They all got up and saw a snake leaving the room through the window. There was an uproar.

Just then another person in the room began to feel unwell, and snakebite marks were found on his body too. The two were taken to an ojha, a traditional healer. The ojha looked at them and said a venomous snake had bitten them and he could not treat them, and told them to take the pair to another ojha. The second ojha chanted incantations over them and told them there was nothing to worry about. But by then the patients' condition had begun to worsen, and they went to a third ojha.

The third ojha performed various incantations and assured them nothing would go wrong, telling them to go home. By then it was morning. Not feeling well, the patients were afraid to go home, and both quickly got worse. Only then did they come to their senses and set off for hospital at 9am. But one of them died before reaching the hospital.

When the second reached the hospital's emergency department, the doctor on duty found that he had been poisoned and his respiratory system was failing. He was struggling badly to breathe. The doctor advised putting him on life support at once, gave him oxygen and quickly referred him to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. But he died on the way, before reaching Rajshahi Medical.

The reason for telling this story is that the lack of awareness of the patients and their relatives was to blame for these two deaths. For more than seven hours after being bitten the two were well, and instead of going to hospital they wasted time going round three ojhas. They did go to hospital, but at the last moment, by which time the venom had spread through their bodies. Had they come to hospital instead of going to an ojha as soon as the snake bit them, they might have been saved.

Those who die of snakebite are usually of working age and are often the only earning member of the family. With a little awareness we can prevent these deaths.

• Snakes bite people who go out to catch fish in the fields.
• In the rainy season, when there is water all around, snakes take shelter inside houses looking for dry places, usually where firewood is kept, in beds, kitchens, clothes racks and haystacks. Going to such places in the dark or silently carries a high risk of being bitten.
• Snakes bite people walking on roads in the dark at night, because snakes usually move about more at night.
• Snakes come into chicken or duck houses to eat eggs or chicks, and bite anyone who goes in.
• In hot weather, snakes bite people sleeping on verandas or in courtyards.

• Do not panic. There are few venomous snakes in our country, and even when a venomous snake bites, the chance of poisoning is 50 per cent.
• Do not move the bitten part of the body. It can be tied loosely with a thin gamchha or a strip cut from a sari. Moving the bitten area will make the venom spread through the body faster.
• Do not take the patient to an ojha, do not use incantations and do not use kabiraji treatment. Do not cut the bite site with a blade.
• Take the patient to hospital as quickly as possible. On the way, check by mobile phone or any other means whether that hospital can give the medicine that neutralises snake venom. Go to a hospital that has it, so no time is lost and the patient is treated quickly.
• Observe the patient for 24 hours from the time of the bite, because poisoning usually sets in within 24 hours of a snakebite. If no sign of poisoning appears in that time, there is no more cause for fear.

As said earlier, most snakes in our country are non-venomous. So people bitten by non-venomous snakes, or by venomous snakes without being poisoned, need no treatment; they recover by themselves. These patients get well on their own, but the kabiraj's incantations get the credit. Snakebite patients who are poisoned will certainly die unless they are given the medicine that neutralises the venom. So the first task of patients and relatives after a snakebite is to go quickly to the nearest hospital. This single piece of awareness can save many snakebite patients, and it is urgent that all of us become aware of it.

The writer is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Prime Medical College and founder of Daktarkhana (GP Centre).

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