Within 3 Weeks 250 Died From Snakes Bite

A NAN correspondent who visited three snake treatment centres – General Hospital, Kaltungo, Ali Mega Pharmacy, Gombe and Comprehensive Medical Centre, Zamko, Plateau State, was told that snake anti-venom drugs – Echitab Plus ICP polyvalent and Echitab G

monovalent – had not been supplied to the country since August, throwing the treatment centres into crisis after the last vials were used up in the first week of October.

An acute scarcity of snake anti-venom drugs in Nigeria has left 250 victims of snake bite in the last 3 weeks in Plateau and Gombe States dead.

“We receive an average of 50 victims every day. Some arrive here in very critical conditions and we just have to watch them die because we are helpless,” Abubakar Abdullahi Aliyu, Managing Director, Aliyu Mega Pharmacy, said in Gombe.

Aliyu, who said snake bites are common during the harvest season, disclosed that the only available drug – Indian anti-venom – was not effective in the treatment of the bites from carpet vipers, the commonest poisonous snakes in the country.

“An average of six deaths are recorded daily. If you go to the snake treatment centre at the Kaltungo General Hospital, you will pity the victims; the lucky ones among them get supportive treatment, while many are left to fate since the drugs are not available.

“Between August and October, we received 750 victims. We were given 700 vials of the anti-venom on August 31, but we exhausted them before October. Many people are just dying. It is a major crisis,” he stated.

“We have tried the Indian anti-venom, but it does not elicit much response. Sometimes, we give six vials and more to a patient, but the effect will be minimal. If we had Echitab drugs, one dose is enough to cure a patient,” he said.

At the Snake Treatment Centre in Kaltungo General Hospital, Gombe State, helpless patients were spotted gasping for breath while the medics watched helplessly.