There are
about 3,000 snakebite cases in the country each year, with 300 to 500 needing
anti-venom treatment.
Fatalities
as a result of snakebites in Australia are extremely rare despite it being home
to twenty of the world's twenty-five most venomous snakes but a six-year-old
girl has died after being bitten by a brown snake in Australia.
The
youngster and her family were reportedly unaware she had been bitten until it
was too late to save her life.
She was
bitten on Friday near Walgett, around 400 miles (650km) northwest of Sydney,
and was rushed to a local hospital when she was almost comatose.
Doctors
gave her anti-venom before she was flown to Sydney Children's Hospital on life
support.
However,
her condition deteriorated and she was transferred back to Walgett Hospital
where she died on Saturday.
It is
understood the youngster trod on the snake at the family home when she was
bitten.
Walgett
Shire deputy mayor Jane Keir, who is a registered nurse, told the Sydney
Morning Herald: "I believe the family didn't know she'd been bitten and,
by the time they'd realised, she was comatose.
"The
little girl could have been on the edge of Sydney and the result would have
been the same."
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