Snake bites in India

If you are traveling in the hinterlands of India, snake sightings are a common happening on the national highways, roads and gullies. Every year more than 40,000 people die of snakebites in India. Children are most vulnerable to snake bites.

Teach children to respect snakes. Most snake bites occur because of snakes feeling threatened by the children. So treat snakes as just another reptile or legless lizard and enjoy your Indian safari. Certain snakebites are poisonous. In fact, some of the venomous snakes do not bite dangerously.

However an attack by a poisonous snake needs an urgent medical attention.

Precautions before the bite    

  1. Educate children to shed their fear of snakes.
  2. Avoid nighttime walks in the forest and the village areas.
  3. Always carry torch and get your children wear ankle boots while traveling
  4. Ask children to keep their bags and boots on the table, above the ground.
  5. Clean the shoes and bang it upside down before allowing children to wear them.
  6. In the summer, if you are living in tents, don’t wet the living areas.
  7. Secure your children from open drainage and pipes for snakes.
  8. Don’t keep windows open during the night.
  9. Never allow your children to enter dark bathrooms at night.
  10. If walking in knee-high grass areas, use wooden stick to disturb the grass to shoo snakes away.
  11. Educate children not to tease or hit at snakes.
  12. Ask children to tell the tour guide or nearest security in case of sighting of snakes.
  13. Keep your family away from the saw scaled viper, cobra, krait (small snake) and a Russel’s viper variety of snakes.
  14. Carry Antivenin dose or anti-snake venom (ASV) with the first aid box.

Measure taken after the bite

  1. Don’t remain at the place of the snake bite.
  2. Make a mental note of appearance and the size of snake.
  3. Relax the child-victim, calm him or her down.
  4. If the snake has attacked the limb; immobilize it.
  5. Don’t’ panic if the victim faints, take him to the hospital at the earliest.
  6. Don’t use tourniquets/ice/electric shocks/fire or any other chemical on the wound.
  7. Don’t suck the venom out as done traditionally.
  8. Provide pressure bandaging to lessen the spread of venom.
  9. Remove the jewelry from the affected parts.
  10. Don’t give attacked children food orally.
  11. If child is hungry, give him mineral water adding little salt and sugar.
  12. Carry the bitten child on stretcher; avoid physical movements.
  13. Ask the child to breathe evenly. Keep pulse rate steady.
  14. Shift the child to emergency wards of any government hospitals for the emergency treatment within three to four hours of the incident.
  15. If you are traveling in the countryside, visit Primary Health Centers (PHCs).

Treatment at the hospital

  • Doctors will conduct an allergy test to the skin of the victim before starting the treatment.
  • Victim gets an antivenin dose after the thorough check up.
  • At the regular intervals, doctors will test the child’s hemoglobin, blood cell counts and vitals.

In India, snakebite victims get polyvalent anti-venom treatment. The medicine has the venom of four big snakes, making it an effective antidote against snakebites. However, the best way to avoid snakebites is to allow them to live them in their habitat, don’t trouble them and they won’t trouble you either.