Snakebites claim five lives in Chandpur in nine months

At least five people including, two housewives, have died receiving snakebites in Chandpur in the past nine months and as many as 555 people were also injured being bitten by venomous snakes in the district during the period.

Snakebite has taken life of a young housewife in Matlab Dakhshin upazila of the district on Monday last.

The deceased was identified as Sharmin Akter (21), wife of Md Raju Patwary of Faridganj upazila and daughter of Md Hannan Mir of Charni Luxmipur village in Matlab Municipal area under Dakhshin upazila.

Family sources said on Saturday evening, while going to the washroom beside dwelling house in her maternal uncle's home in Nobokolosh area under Matlab Dakhshin Upazila, Sharmin received a bite from a poisonous snake that fled away at once. Then she was given treatment by a local Kobiraj (a traditional Ayurvedic doctor). On Sunday last, Sharmin's father rushed her to Chandpur General Hospital where anti- venom injection was pushed into her body. Afterwards she felt well but on Monday morning, her condition deteriorated and she succumbed to the snake-bite injury. A doctor in Chandpur General Hospital, named Anisur Rahman, and the hospital's superintendent, Dr AKM Mahbubur Rahman, told the FE, as the patient was late to take anti-venom injection, the injection did not work at all and she died.

According to the hospital sources, another youth of Eashanbala char in Haimchar upazila, named Sohel Gazi (35), a milk trader by profession, also died of snake bite a few days ago. This victim had also been treated by a local Kobiraj first after the snakebite.

Then he was brought to Chandpur General Hospital several hours after the incident. Despite pushing anti-venom injection into his body, he collapsed and died on the hospital premises moments later. On the other hand, according to the Chandpur Civil Surgeon's Office, at least five people, two women among them, have died from snakebites-- one each in Hajiganj, Haimchar and Matlab Dakshin upazila and two persons in Kachua upazila--and more than 555 people have been injured in snake bites in the last nine months in eight upazilas of the district. Senior Medical Officer Dr Shakhawat Hossain of the civil surgeon's office said of the injured, as many as 170 people, highest in the district, have been injured in snake bites in Matlab Uttar, and 131 people have been injured in Hajiganj upazila. Due to taking anti-venom injection in time, the snake -bite- injured people did not die-said the doctors.

Talking to the FE, Civil Surgeon Dr Noor Alam Din said, anti-venom injections are available in all the upazila health complexes of the district. But despite this people receiving snakebites in the rural areas are treated by Ojha/or Kobiraj which is not at all a correct treatment. Social awareness is therefore urgently needed among the mass people to combat it.

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