No fewer than ninety-one victims of snakebite have died in the
last three weeks in Plateau and Gombe states, following an acute scarcity of
snake anti-venom drugs in the country.
The figure
represents the number of confirmed deaths from three snake treatment centres —
General Hospital, Kaltungo, Ali Mega Pharmacy, Gombe and Comprehensive Medical
Centre, Zamko, Plateau State.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, who visited the
three medical outfits, met other victims in critical situations, with some of
them left on bare floors as the doctors said they were helpless without the
anti-venom.
NAN reports
that the 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.
Echitab Plus
ICP, produced at Instituto Clodomiro Picado, University of Costa Rica, treats
bites from all venomous snakes in Nigeria, while Echitab G, produced by
Micropharm Ltd., United Kingdom, is solely for carpet viper bites.
Medics, who
spoke with NAN at the three treatment centres, said that the cases of
snakebites were usually very common during the harvest season.
“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,” the Managing Director, Aliyu Mega Pharmacy, Abubakar Aliyu, told NAN
in Gombe.
He said that
more than 70 victims had died in the last three weeks following the lack of
anti-venom to treat them, adding that some came from Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi,
Borno and Plateau states.
“An average of
six deaths is 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.
Aliyu said that the only available drug — Indian anti-venom — was
not as effective in the treatment of the bites from carpet vipers, the
commonest poisonous snakes in the country.
“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.
The pharmacist
urged the Federal Government to promptly step in to assist Echitab Study Group,
the outfit coordinating the supply and distribution of the Echitab drugs, so as
to make them available.
The Snake
Treatment Centre at the Kaltungo General Hospital, Gombe State, equally
presented a sorry sight with hapless patients gasping for breath while the
medics watched helplessly.
The Snakebite
Treatment Officer, Dr. Abubakar Ballah, told NAN that the situation was “sad
and scary.”
“We have a
serious crisis here. In the last one week, 139 patients were admitted with 77
absconding when we appeared helpless, owing to the non-availability of the
anti-snake venom drug.
“Some were
unconscious when they were brought here. Sometimes, it is corpses that are
brought to us.
“In the last
few days, we have recorded 21 deaths. The figure is more because many of those
that absconded were in bad shape; many others did not even bother to come here
because of the fore-knowledge of lack of anti-venom in the centre.
“The last drug
was used on October 13. We try to give vitamin K to the victims to enhance
blood clotting in the absence of anti-venom because bites from the viper snakes
cause bleeding, which is difficult to control without anti-venom.
“Already, some
criminals are faking the drug and selling it at N43,000 per vial, contrary to
the original anti-snake venom sold by the Echitab Study Group at the cost of
between N13,500 and N30,000.”
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