CUTTACK: In order to empower and equip emergency medicine clinicians for snakebite management, the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology (FMT) department of SCB Medical College and Hospital on Sunday organised a training under the Continuous Medical Education (CME) programme on the hospital premises.
Experts said snakebite is a neglected environmental and occupational hazard for rural class like farmers and people living in forest areas.
India has 216 identifiable species of snakes, of which 52 are known to be poisonous. There is a spike in snakebites during the monsoon season. SCBMCH too receives significant number of snakebite cases annually from all over the State. Last year, the premium Government-run hospital had recorded as many as 130 snakebite death cases.
Doctors from different departments like Medicine, Community Medicine, Pharmacology, Pathology of SCBMCH, including undergraduate and postgraduates along with doctors from AIIMS-Bhubaneswar, MKCG MCH, VIMSAR, FM MCH in Balasore, BB MCH in Balangir, SUM Hospital, KIMS and Hi-Tech MCH, Bhubaneswar participated in the event.
Head of the FMT department Prof Geeta Sahu, HoD of SPM Prof Rama Chandra Giri, HoD of Medicine Prof Biranchi Narayan Mohapatra, HoD of Pharmacology Prof Sabita Mohapatra and HoD of FMT, AIIMS-Bhubaneswar Prof Manoj Mohanty spoke on the occasion. Snake Helpline general secretary Subhendu Mallick also educated doctors how to identify poisonous snakes.
Issues like epidemiological burden of snakebite, biochemical structure of snake venom and MOA of ASV, first aid, transportation, snakebite management in PHC and CHC etc were discussed.