New Delhi: With snakebites causing 58,000 deaths annually in India, the Union health ministry’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is working on a “National Action Plan for Snakebite Venom (NAPSE)” and has called a meeting on 28 February to finalize the draft.
This assumes importance given that according to ICMR, it is estimated that there are over 1 million snakebites in India alone causing significant disability in over 200,000 people.
The meeting will be attended by officials from ministry of animal husbandry, agriculture, tribal affairs, central zoo authorities, Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR), WHO-India, Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) and vaccine manufacturers,etc.
“Snakebite venoming is a neglected tropical disease that is responsible for enormous suffering, disability and premature deaths on every continent. To prevent the deaths due to snakebite, a national consultation on developing on National Action Plan for prevention and Control of snakebite Envenoming India was held under the chairmanship of DGHS,” stated a communication issued by NCDC seen by Mint.
“The draft version of the plan has already been prepared by the National Centre for Disease Control. It is planned that each chapter would be reviewed by concerned division before finalizing the same. A meeting has been called to seek inputs from the anti- snake venom stakeholders to discuss related points of the draft action plan,”it said.
Queries sent to the health ministry did not elicit any response.
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