Patients Storm Snake Bite Treatment Hospital In Gombe Over Increased Attack

The central Nigerian state of Gombe said it had
awarded a N500 million(about $3.5million) contract
for the building of a 250-bed capacity Snake Bite
Treatment Hospital, Commissioner for Health, Dr.
Kennedy Ishaya said.
Ishaya added that the existing snake bite treatment
centre had received 500 doses of anti-snake venom
for the free treatment of snake bite patients.
Snake bites are common in this part of Nigeria, with
the Snake Bite Treatment and Research Centre,
Kaltungo in the State, receiving 10-11 patients daily.
a rattle snake
a rattle snake
"On the average, the centre records 10 to 11 patients
daily. The hospital wards were designed to contain
only 44 patients. At the moment, there are 73
patients in the centre", said Abubakar Balla, the
medical officer in charge of the hospital in November.
"People come to the hospital from nine states in the
northern part of the country to access treatment," he
said, underscoring the seriousness of the situation.
Dr Folake Ademola-Majekodunmi, Director of Special
Projects, Federal Ministry of Health, reeled out a
frightening statistics on the snake biting
phenomenon.
"In Africa, an estimated one million snakebites occur,
with Nigeria having an estimated incidence of
snakebites to the ratio of 174 per 100,000 persons,"
she said.
Apart from Gombe, the other states mostly affected
by the menace of snakebite were Taraba, Plateau,
Enugu, Kogi, Oyo, Borno, Adamawa, Jigawa and
Niger.

Sent From David Aniemeka