Kerala records 3,000 critical snakebite incidents annually
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala, second only to West Bengal in venomous snake diversity nationwide, has declared snakebite envenomation a disease of public health importance, requiring mandatory hospital reporting of cases, strengthening anti-venom supply chains and standardising treatment protocols.Kerala HC directed the state govt recently to make snakebite a notifiable disease within two months in accordance with a circular issued by Union health ministry in Nov 2024. The Sept 26 order came on two petitions filed in 2019 after a Class 5 student suffered a fatal snakebite at a govt school in Wayanad that year.Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are two other states that have declared snakebite envenomation a notifiable condition. In Kerala, its inclusion in the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme under Section 28(3) of the Kerala Public Health Act, 2023, makes it a structured health priority.The state records over 3,000 critical snakebite incidents annually. Between 8,000 and 12,000 people are admitted to govt hospitals each year for treatment of snakebites, according to reports from the National Health Mission.Official data from SARPA, the forest department’s “snake awareness, rescue and protection” app, shows 334 snakebite deaths between 2017 and 2019, averaging 110 fatalities a year. The number of deaths dropped to 76 in 2020, 40 in 2021 and 42 in 2022.The classification empowers coordinated action between departments and improved medical response mechanisms. Clinical management and reporting will follow the National Centre for Disease Control’s updated national guidelines for management of snakebite, published in 2022.Kerala’s rural and agricultural regions face continued risk from venomous snakes. Apart from the Russell’s viper, cobra, krait and saw-scaled viper, the venom of hump-nosed pit viper – unique to the Western Ghats – is linked to severe renal complications and underreported deaths, says a 2021 study in Journal of the Association of Physicians of India.WHO recognised snakebite envenomation as a Neglected Tropical Disease in 2017 and urged countries to halve related deaths and disabilities by 2030. Kerala’s new classification aligns state health policy with WHO’s global strategy.The state’s SARPA platform connects citizens to certified rescuers, records verified incident data and provides guidance on safe first response. The initiative, which integrates trained snake handlers, emergency rescue teams and hospital alert systems, is believed to have driven the decline in fatalities in recent years.
