SNAKE ENVENOMATION: “GRAVE PREDICAMENT” IN NEGLECT

Why snake envenomation lacks its visibility from the priority list of health care policies in India? Why the country is still unequipped to face the problem with prime predilection? Despite its long history, why the medical system still follows century back protocols to treat envenomation? An amalgamation of factors has led to the above aforesaid crisis of snake envenomation. Problems related to production of snake antivenom, lack of research, efficacy problem with polyvalent antivenom, lack of diagnostic systems to predict envenomation status of victims, lack of doctors who has the expertise to heal snake bites and also the ignorance and myths related to snakes - all such multi-component factors contribute well to snake bite becoming one of the most abandoned, neglected, ignored, underestimated and fundamentally misunderstood medical dilemma.