Against the backdrop of rise in snake-bite cases, Maharashtra Government has decided to procure over 1.10 lakh snake venom rapid test kits. These kits will be distributed to health machinery across the 34 districts. Public Health Department (PHD), after going through the data analysis of deaths due to snake-bite, noticed that doctors before administering the anti-venom have to determine whether the snake involved in the incident was venomous or non-venomous. Most of the time, the snake-bite cases referred to local hospitals of PHD involve non-venomous snakes. Since the admittance report mentions the patient as that of snake-bite, anti-venom in injected to counter the poison. To limit use of costly anti-snake venom kits whose shortage was felt by District Health Machinery due to random usage, the Health Department though it is prudent to invest in the testing kits.

 

This will help in pre-determine snake’s viscidity and in case the doctors feel the patient can be cured with regular treatment, then the anti-venom can be saved upon. With the simple diagnostic type kits, it would help the physicians to prescribe anti-snake venom only when required. The State has sanctioned a sum of Rs. 6.14 crore for purchasing the rapid test kits. The anti-venom is quite powerful antidote in case of bite by poisonous snake. In the country, particularly in tropical areas, the presence of poisonous snakes are not that much. And in rural area where most cases of snake-bite are reported, a majority of time, the reptile involved in non poisonous.

 

The said purchases are going to be done through Chief Executive Officer, Maharashtra Medical Goods Procurement Authority, Mumbai, only after ensuring that they meet the required technical parameters and are upto required quality standards. To rule out any supply of inferior products, it is decided to go for pre or post dispatch random sample inspection. Given the high cost of the products, the Health Department has desired proper inventory management, proper storage so as to ensure that these kits are not wasted and get fully utilised.

 

The kits are going to be distributed at level of Civil Surgeon and District Health Officer respectively and from there to be divided among the sub-hospital and others health units in the district. A cursory look into the quantity each of the district would be getting shows that Nashik has the highest snake-bite cases and hence it is allocated quota of 25,500 followed by 12,400 to Washim and 11,000 kits to Nandurbar. Nagpur has been given quota of 2,850 such kits. Incidentally, Kolhapur, Latur, Chandrapur, Dhule, Ahilyanagar, Dharashiv, Pune, Raigad, Sangli and Thane districts have not been given any allocation of the kits.