With monsoon just a month away, the West Bengal Health Department is gearing up to deal with snake bite cases that claimed 370 lives in the rural pockets last year. Official sources said that 12,000 snake bite cases were reported in September last year. The year before last, the toll was 335 out of a total of 7,500 reported cases.An official said that a campaign is being launched exhorting people not to waste time by going to quacks and urging them to go to the nearest health centres instead. The other step is to ensure that health centres have stocks of anti-venom serum.But their greatest stumbling block seems to be the quacks. Very often victims are rushed to quacks. This delay in treatment proves fatal for many. What has also caused alarm is the nexus between health staff and quacks. Moreover, the anti-venom serum is used by quacks indiscriminately whether it’s a a poisonous or non-poisonous snake, the officer said. ‘‘Fortunately, we have 90 per cent snake bites by the non-poisonous variety, otherwise the toll could have gone far above,’’ admitted the officer.
