YAU WIZIRI writes on the threat being posed to the people of Kaltungo community of Gombe State by poisonous snakes.
If there is one thing that constitutes a snare to the people of Kaltungo community in Gombe State, it is the venom of snake bites. While many in the not-too wealthy state are worried about their daily needs, the natives of Kaltungo, are primarily obsessed with how to cope with the menace being posed to their lives by poisonous vipers.
The creatures rule the area like kings and wreak havoc at will. In fact, the fear of the wicked animal is the beginning of wisdom in the area. Because of the danger already posed to lives in the community, the people are now ruled by fear: they wake up with the fear of the animal and also retire to bed with the dread of the slippery animal and its noxious effect on their lives.
The people have justifiable reasons to be rattled by the animal. Snakebite has sent many members of the community to their early graves and rendered many as orphans, widows and widowers through no fault of theirs. Those who have so far been killed met their untimely death while pursuing their legitimate chores. Others simply stepped on the deadly creatures and that terminated their lives abruptly.
Mallam Gidado Abubakar, 42, and farmer who has been bitten by snake many times, says he has suffered severe pains inflicted on him by snakes. “The bite could be very painful and deadly, if immediate medical attention is not given to the victim,” he says.
Abubakar, who hails from the food-producing area of Mambilla in Taraba
State but does his business in Gombe, said that he had suffered enough in the hands of snakes in his genuine effort to produce food for Nigerians.
“I have been bitten many times by snake while trying to carry foliage into my plantation farm or taking farm produce from my barn,” he said.
But for him, snakebite is not a big deal because he can easily identify the type that bit him and quickly organise treatment. However, others who are in the same profession are not as professional as he is and cannot take proactive measures to protect themselves from snakes.
Mallam Rubadu Ibrahim, 35 years old fisherman from Gombi LGA? of Adamawa State, who is also a victim of snakebite, said he was almost killed by a snake he caught in accident while fishing. “ I thought that I had caught a big fish in my net only to discover that it was a snake. It bit my silly while I was trying to get hold of it and get it into my bowl in the night. I fainted many times but was only revived in the special centre for snakebite in Kaltungo and I will never forget in a hurry the pains that I went through that night,” he said.
But the story of Mallam Adamu Magaji, 24, a hunter from Funakaye LGA of? Gombe State and a snakebite victim, is different from others.
“I was hunting in one of the forests in Gombe, when a python, descended on me and I almost passed out. I barely managed to survive shortly after being bitten.
The only thing that saved my life was that I was quickly rushed to the Kaltungo General Hospital by my fellow hunters and I was quickly attended to before the snake venom took hold of me.
The victim says the public should be aware of the dangers being posed by the species of snakes prevalent in a given locality, their habitat and their most active period of their attacks.
“What the public should do is to frequently inspect houses for cracks, holes and any other place where snakes can easily hide,” he said.
The Head of Snake Treatment Centre Kaltungo, Dr. Saidu Bala Abubakar, says that snake bite often results in puncture wounds inflicted by the snake’s fangs.
“The ease with which the patient can be treated depends on the specie of snake involved, area of the body bitten and the amount of venom injected and the health condition of the victim,” Abubakar explained.
But the wild animals appear to have been overpowered by the vaccines that have already been made available for the treatment of snake bite victims in Nigeria. Victims can now get instant treatment and survive attack faster than what the situation was in the time past, when patients died in droves as a result of lack of medical attention.
Currently, the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has a ready-made anti-snake venoms: (Echitab (fab), Echitab G, and Echitab Plus) for the treatment of victims. According to medical experts, these products are effective and have 100 percent cure rate compared with other anti-venoms being sold in Nigeria. The EchiTab G monovalent and polyvalent ASV that FMOH has been procuring from ESG/UK is not only effective but highly efficient in giving immediate succour to the victims, and above all, cost effective.
In addition, the EchiTab G/Plus product is Nigerian snake specific and that gives it an edge over other suppliers in the country as only one vial/dose is needed to revive the patient.??
Unlike in the past, when snake bite victims died as a result of lack of medical attention, the Kaltungo Centre in Gombe State has been fully developed to provide a reliable means of treatment for victims in Nigeria and beyond.
The Federal Government has been fully responsible for the funding of the Kaltungo Centre in Gombe and it has managed to live up to its billings despite teething challenges over the years.
In the past few years for instance, no fewer than 12, 398 snake bite victims have been treated in the centre while 155 deaths were recorded..
The Medical Director of Snake Bite Research Centre Kaltungo, Dr. Saidu Abubakar, disclosed that between 2005 to date, fatality rate? resulting from snake bite stood at 1.25 percent compared to 35-40 percent fatality rate recorded before the discovery of “Echitab” drugs that has 99.9 percent cure rate.?
Respite has come the way of Nigerians because the Echitab Study Group, Federal Ministry of Health, Liverpool School of Hygiene and? Tropical Medicine and Oxford University have jointly developed a cost-effective vaccine for the treatment of snake bite victim thereby reducing avoidable deaths from the wild animals.
The choice of Kaltungo for the research center is not unconnected with the prevalence of snakes within the locality, which has been the source of death to the majority of the locals over the years.
But the all-important centre has been housed in a dilapidated facility with only three small wards that can hardly meet the expectations of the people.
When the month of April approaches, the people are in distress because that is when snakes go on the rampage, attacking and wreaking havoc on the people and the community.
But, who is safe given the venom that the dangerous reptiles continue to emit in the midst of new and advancing anti-snake vaccines? The snake bite treatment centre in Kaltungo notwithstanding, utmost care is still needed by the natives of the snake-infested community of Gombe State, if they want to survive and face the odd realities now staring the country in the face.
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