ICMR takes up study on snakebite incidence in India

Shimla: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) task force has started a study on the incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite in the country. The unique study will look prospectively at the incidence of snakebite covering 13 states, including Himachal Pradesh, in five zones of India and a population of 84 million.The other states are Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Tripura.
An article on the study ‘ICMR task force project- survey of the incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite in India: A study protocol’ has been published in the international research journal Plos One on Monday.
The national principal investigator for ICMR study is Dr Jaideep C Menon from Preventive Cardiology & Population Health Sciences, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, Kerala, while Dr (Padam Shree) Omesh Bharti, state epidemiologist with department of health of Himachal Pradesh government is the national principal co-investigator.
“This study will generate real data on snakebite incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite for the first time in the country to help the decision makers in policy framing to prevent and control snakebite in India. The country still doesn’t know the real snakebite burden and is hence groping in the dark when it comes to policy,” said Dr Bharti.
The survey takes into consideration all the geographical areas like hilly, plains, marshy, desert and coastal. “It is the first such study design for the survey of snakebite incidence in South East Asia. Sri Lanka has done it, but they covered a population of 1% only, whereas our study would cover a population of 6.12%,” he added.
According to the article, snakebite is possibly the most neglected of the NTDs (neglected tropical diseases). Half of the global deaths due to venomous snakebites, estimated at 1,00,000 per year, occur in India. The only representative data on snakebite available from India is the mortality data from the RGI-MDS study (Registrar General of India- 1 Million Death Study) and another study on mortality from Bihar. It was only in 2017 that snakebite was added back onto WHO list of NTDs, after being struck off the list in 2013.
Geographically, the greatest impact of snakebite is in the tropical and subtropical regions, with the highest occurrence in India. Global estimates of snakebite range from 4.5 million to 5.4 million bites annually, with an estimated 2 million of them in India with significant physical, mental and socio-economic consequences.
The study duration is for 18 months from April 2022 to October 2023. As per the RGI-MDS, the number of deaths due to venomous snakebite in India is 46,900 per year. This is considerably high, compared to only 10–12 deaths per year, due to venomous snakebite in the US and Australia, this despite the fact that less populous Australia has probably more venomous species. Reports suggest that only 20–30% of victims of snakebite in rural India seek treatment in hospitals.