Survey of Snakes Bites among Snake Endemic Communities in North Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Snake envenomation is increasingly recognized as a serious, worldwide public health concern and a neglected tropical disease of global importance especially in the North Eastern Nigeria. The scarcity of data regarding such snake fauna couple with its ability to inflict immense misery to the poorest of the population justifies the need to identify such snakes and some of the clinical features of snakebite victims in these endemic areas. Both primary and secondary data were collected during the study. Result revealed that 10 venomous snake species were reported in Gombe, Taraba and Bauchi state. The most abundant snake species is the Echis ocellantus (Carpet or saw scaled viper) having the highest frequency of encounter followed by the Bitis arientans (Puff Adder) and Naja nigricolis (Black Spiting Cobra). The Kaltungo General Hospital in Gombe is one of the major treatment centers in the North-Eastern Nigeria. About 2945 Human snakebite cases were reported in the Hospital in the year 2018, the highest snake envenoming were observed in October with 16.1% frequency while January has the least snakebite cases of 1.7%. The burden of snakebite envenoming in the North-Eastern Nigeria is a serious public health challenge which desperately need to be addressed.