Conference to formulate Indian Protocol on snakebites begins

Kochi, Jul 24 (UNI) Prof. Robert Norris, chief of Emergency Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, USA, inaugurated 'TOXOCON-2', a national conference to formulate an Indian Protocol on snakebite management, here today.

Inaugurating the conference, Prof. Norris, an authority on snakebites, said that it was high time that India, which has the highest incidence of snakebite deaths in the world, got an effective, standardised regimen for snakebite management at the grassroots level.

''I am very happy that this conference will formulate the draft national protocol, which I am sure will go a long way in reducing the snakebite deaths and trauma in the country,'' he added.

Mr Ian Simpson of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Snakebite Treatment Group said that according to WHO statistics, the death toll due to snakebite in India was around 50,000 per annum.

Currently, treatment quality in the country was highly varied, ranging from excellent in some places to very poor in others, he added.

Talking of the proposed National Protocol, he said that this would be an Indian protocol, tailormade for the Indian situation.

This will be for the first time in the world that a uniform, standardised protocol for the entire country was being developed, he added.

Dr V V Pillay of the Poison Control Centre of the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) here said that nearly 40 experts and 30 delegates are attending the two-day deliberations.

The draft protocol prepared by the conference would be forwarded to the union health ministry for ratification and nation-wide pubilicity, he added.

UNI ARC VS1455