Modern trends in managing snake bites held in Accra

A workshop on snake bite has been organised in Accra, during which participants were taken through modern trends in managing such bites.   

Dubbed: “Snake bite management in Ghana”, the workshop also exposed participants to a series of new medical products for combating snake bite, the dosage, as well as the indications.

A resource person, Dr Jean-Philippe Chippaux, a physician at the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD), took participants through the various trends in managing snake bites. 

“Snake bite victims must be given quick and positive first aid. The patient must be moved to a well-ventilated and quiet place and conference infused. The patient must be assured that there is no reason to get alarmed. The site of bite should be cleaned with water without rubbing and dressed up with antiseptics, taking care not to rub the wound. The bitten part should be immobilised,” he advised. 

He said snake venom would not put people in danger if treated correctly to prevent the venom from spreading to other parts of the body. 

Snake venom poisoning is an emergency case, especially in certain rural farming communities in most parts of Africa, and the estimated number of deaths is between 500 and 1,000 every year.

There are about 3,000 species of snakes in the world to date, of which 300 are very poisonous to man.

Training  

The workshop was jointly organised by a multinational pharmaceutical company in Ghana, Pharmanova Limited, and Inosan Biopharma, a Mexican pharmaceutical agency, in collaboration with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR).

It brought together over 200 participants, comprising representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Police Service and some medical practitioners. 

The Managing Director of Pharmanova Limited, Mr Dhananjay Tripathi, said “snake bites are often emergency medical situations that require immediate attention. In Ghana, such emergency situations are very difficult to handle due to lack of appropriate antidotes”.  

While a broad-spectrum anti-venom product for healthcare facilities was crucial, he said, Inosan Biopharma had developed the world’s most advanced anti-venom for primary healthcare use and was presently introducing it onto the Ghanaian market.

He reiterated Pharmanova’s commitment to improve the quality of life of the people by providing affordable and quality innovative healthcare products. 

A former research fellow with the NMIMR, Mr Daniel Osei, urged the government to step up the fight against snake bites to reduce mortality through such bites. 

He said the government must also equip healthcare facilities in the country with modern antidotes and also organise periodic training sessions to equip medical practitioners with modern trends in snake bite management.