As people flee from disastrous floods and encounter reptiles in dry areas, increasing incidents of snakebites have been reported nationwide.
When the News Agency of Nigeria’s correspondents visited locations where snakebites are common and the medical facilities, they discovered a dramatic increase in the cases, with more deaths being reported because flooding had cut off access to the facilities.
The wife of the Magama village chief in the Langtang South Local Government of the Plateau State was among those that perished.
“Yes, I can attest to the dramatic increase in snakebite cases; one of the casualties was the Magama village chief’s wife.
“The situation is frightening. Snakes and people are fighting over space as they flee the floods, when they typically do so in the dry plains, according to Dr. Nandul Durfa, who spoke to NAN.
The creator of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV), Durfa, expressed sadness that so many people were succumbing to the threat.
The absence of ASV in the treatment facilities was also bemoaned by the former Chief Medical Director of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital.
The circumstance was further explained by Dr. Abubakar Saidu Balla, Research Officer at the Snakebite Research Hospital in Kaltungo, Gombe State, to NAN.
“Farmlands are moist due to the disastrous floods, and snakes move to higher grounds where they mix with people.
In the riverine regions around Borno, Adamawa, Kogi, Gombe, and Bauchi, the situation is worse.
“Snakes are forced to migrate by floods, or they are carried by them and dropped in homes, woodlands, or over river banks.
The fact that victims are unable to travel to medical facilities to receive care because the roads and bridges have either been washed away or inundated makes the situation worse.
Motorcycles typically provide assistance in rural regions, however they are currently unable to cross water. Victims frequently die before they reach treatment facilities.
Going to the farms had become risky, according to Balla, especially in Gombe.
It’s time to harvest the corn and groundnuts, but travelling to the farm right now is extremely risky due to the high rate of snakebites.
Contact with the snakes is frequently unavoidable since farmers cannot leave their crops in the bushes, he claimed.
According to hospital records, 1,900 snake bite victims have been treated there since January.
34 of the victims passed away, according to Dr. Suleiman Mohammed, its Chief Medical Officer.
He claimed that farmers and herders, who typically worked in remote areas and were at risk, made up the majority of the victims.
“We often have more cases after the heaviest rains because the majority of snakes are forced out of their burrows and hiding places by the flooding.
As a result, when there is a flood, there are more snake bite incidents because the water drives snakes out of their natural habitat and into populated areas.
Six deaths, he claimed, had been reported in October, with the remaining cases occurring from January to September.
Reports from Lokoja in Kogi also suggested that people were living in fear and that snake bites had become commonplace.
Usman Agbaje, a local, told NAN, “We live in terror of snakes but we thank God that we have not recorded any incident of snakebite.
He claimed that people traveling on the flooded Ganaja-Lokoja road frequently came into contact with large snakes while in the boats.
Joseph Benjamin, a different resident, claimed that snakes had been seen in the Army Barracks.
We were fortunate that it was eliminated before it could hurt anyone when a large one was recently spotted in a room.
A young child recently spotted a snake under a chair and immediately alerted her parents, who promptly exterminated it, he added.
Another local government where snakebites are frequent is Langtang.
The threat of snake bites has left locals hopeless year after year, and they are still waiting impatiently for the government to act.
We have a health center in Zamko, where snakebite victims are typically taken, said Naomi Bako, a local who bemoaned the incidence of snakebites in numerous communities in the council area. Over 1,500 instances are reported every year. The pattern has not changed this year.
“Even last week, I witnessed the transport of two patients who had been bitten by snakes to the clinic.”
Additionally, more people are being bitten by snakes in Jos East Local Government Area. Atsen Daniel, the Chairman of the Hunters Association in the Council Area, confirmed the news.
“What I can tell you is that there have been a few snake bite incidents in our neighborhoods,” Daniel stated. As the chairman of the hunters’ association, I am unaware of the exact number of victims at this time, but I am aware that there are a lot of them.
He continued by saying that because snakes travel about in search of dry surroundings and may find up in people’s houses, snake bites typically increase during the rainy season as opposed to the hot season.
He said, “Snakes in this area move about readily, particularly during this time of the wet season. During the wet season, they are easily located in a dry location, and during the dry season, they favor a cool environment. We are not terrified of snakes in this region, despite the fact that we are aware of how severe snake bites may be. We go looking for them because it’s a very profitable endeavor. Depending on its size, catching one alive will net you a sizable sum of money.
You may be able to sell it for N100,000 or maybe more. Since we have purchasers that go from outside the state to buy them whenever we have them, the issue is not how to sell it, but rather how to catch it.
