DEMOW: Snake Bite Deaths are very common in Assam and most of these deaths happen due to superstitious beliefs prevalent among the common folk that faith healers can cure them from poisonous snake bites.
To change this very attitude in people a doctor from Sivasagar in Assam has come up with a comprehensive model to ensure zero deaths of victims due to snake bites by 2024.
This ambitious project is undertaken by an anaesthesiologist with the National Health Mission and serving at the Demow Rural Community Health Centre (DRCHC), Dr Surajit Giri.
Dr. Giri wants the help of the state government in his endeavor to ensure zero deaths by snake bites in Assam by 2024 through his ambitious model.
"Lack of coordinated comprehensive care in snake bite management is the key factor for the high death rate in the North-eastern region and the country but there is no robust data regarding this" Dr.Giri said in a statement.
"There is a need for coordinated movement of snake bite victims from the field to the hospital and there is a huge gap between the care in pre-hospital, point of source hospitals, and secondary care hospitals which needs to be addressed to ensure the survival of the victims" Dr.Giri added.
Giri said the Demow Rural Health Centre is indigenously working on a model since 2018, which is planned for preventive, curative, mental, and socio-economic care of snake bite victims.
The model has given birth to a Venom Response Team under the 'Apada Mitra' project of the District Disaster Management Authority that will notify and safely transfer the snake-bite patients to a nearby hospital.
Another team that is formed under the model is a Fast Response Team which comprises an on-duty doctor and a team of nurses to effectively administer anti-snake venoms (ASV) and other such medications which are needed to cure ultra venomous snake bites if needed.
The Demow Rural Health Centre also has a small 'snake bite room' where all medicines required in such cases will be available while protocols and photographs of venomous snakes found in Assam have been mounted on the walls.
Giri wants this model to be applied to each and every health center across the state and speaking on this, he said, "We are trying to replicate this in other health centers across the state with the help of doctors posted there so that we can ensure zero snake bite deaths by 2024".
It is to be noted here that India records more than 50000 snake bite deaths a year and this happens mostly in the rural areas where people are less educated and they rush to local healers for their cure.
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