Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A season of snake bites

The coming of the rainy season has brought mixed feelings to the people of Gombe State and other communities in the Benue and Niger valley. Farmers in the area are worried about snake bites, a common occurrence in the area during the season.

Snakebites are a major medical issue in the rural communities of the savannah region of
West Africa, including Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina-Faso,
Mali, Niger and Cameroun. Saw-scaled vipers, puff adders and cobras are most
likely to cause death from snakebite in this region. Children, women, farmers,
herdsmen and hunters are at the greatest risk.

Data on snake bites in Nigeria last year was put at 174 per 100,000, while fatality
was between 10 to 20 percent. About 90 percent of bites and 60 percent of
deaths was caused by the dangerous Echis Osecellatus. Recent studies show that
four types of poisonous snakes are identified in Nigeria, three of them being
Naja Nigricolis, Bitis Arientas and Echis Osecellatus.

One of the studies, which was carried out in 2008 by an expert group from the
Federal Ministry of Health found that the Nigeria Echis Osecellatus is one of
the most dangerous in the world. The researchers also found that half of
hospital beds in most of the rural hospitals in the zone were occupied by
snakebite victims at the beginning of the farming season.

Yet, most victims of snakebites are increasingly becoming tired of seeking medical
assistance owing to the perpetual shortage and high cost of anti-venom drugs.

Theo Ochonu, a general medical practitioner with the Federal Medical Centre, Gombe,
said the rising cost and lack of availability of anti-venom in recent years had
put the cost of treatment of snakebites out of the reach of most patients. He
said drugs of doubtful potency may cost between N3,000 and N4,000 at local
pharmacies.

“As a result, useless and potentially dangerous remedies such as the resort to the
use of black snake stone have gained popularity among the populace,” he said.

The Federal Ministry of Health recently warned that there is an acute shortage of
anti-venom vaccine in the country. This, it said, was because the traditional
suppliers from South Africa and Sanofi Pasteur were unable to meet demands from
Gombe and other affected states.

This shortage, according to Dr. Ochoun, has resulted in increasing number of
patients bleeding to death or surviving with amputated extremities.

The cure despised

Nigeria could produce a more potent anti-venom drug, if its officials desired to. The Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine, working with the EchiTab Study Group, established
in 2000 by the federal government, appeared to have produced an anti-venom
vaccine capable of treating all kinds of snakebites in the country.

The scarcity and high incidence of death from snakebites was, itself, responsible
for the setting up of the EchiTab Study Group.

The group, comprising Nigerian experts and their UK counterparts, had the mandate
of finding vaccine-based solutions to incessant snake bites in the country.

They were to also conduct research to develop effective anti-venoms against
poisonous Nigerian snakes.

The aim of constituting the group, according to the late minister of health,
Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, was to ensure that no Nigerian died of snakebites any
longer.

After exporting over 150 snake species to the Liverpool School from Nigeria, the
group was able to develop the vaccine.

The snakes were kept in herpetaium and then milked, and their venoms formed the raw
materials for the production of the anti-venoms.

During clinical trials, several hundreds were successfully treated with the
anti-venoms in various designated hospitals and clinics across the country.

Statistics from the Kaltungo General Hospital, Gombe State, and the Jos University
Teaching Hospital’s Comprehensive Health Centre in Zamko, Plateau State, showed
that a total of 5,574 snakebite victims were treated with the anti-venoms
between 2005 and 2008.

The expected support from the federal government towards the mass production of
this vaccine has, however, not come since the completion of the trials last
year.

It is believed that the Veterinary Research Institute at Vom, Jos could be used to
start this production.

Even if the federal government will not do it, the various state governments within the
Niger-Benue valley should invest in the production of the vaccine, Dr. Ochonu
said

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