THE Federal Ministry of Health has donated large quantities of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) to reduce impact of incidents of snakebites in Kanke, Panshin and Shendam communities of Plateau State.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, while presenting the drugs at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), recently said that the donation was in response to the outcry from the people in the affected communities, adding that “the donation is part of the government’s intervention effort in curtailing the scourge, which had been ravage the region since August 2015.
According to the Minister, who was represented by an Assistant Director, Fatai Oyediran, led a team of medical experts and environmental scientists from Federal Ministry of Health to Plateau state, stated that his team was in the state to confirm the complain, assess the current status of the snakebite and carry out a sensitization and awareness campaign, which is aimed at raising the bar in terms of prevention and control of the scourge.
He further added that survey would be carried out by some experts, to determine the most effective ways to control the incident within each locality.
In his response, the Plateau State Commissioner of Health, Dr. kuden Kamshak Deyin, commended the Federal government for her laudable assistance to the state.
However, he called on the Federal government to decentralize the Zamko JUTH treatment center and upgrade it to a research center, adding that it would help in repositioning the center to cope better with the big health burden the center was saddled with.
The Permanent Secretary, Plateau State Ministry of Health, Pharmacist Abel Hamila Guyatan, appealed to the Medical experts to do justice to the snakebite challenge, noting, “The whole geographical of Plateau state is a snake endemic area.”
Speaking, Medical Superintendent of the Zamko treatment center, Dr. Titus Dajel, revealed that the center treats between 80-120 snakebite cases per month and sometimes 5 cases were reported daily particularly during farming seasons.
As regards to this, Dr. Dajel stressed the need for Federal government to encourage local drug manufacturers so that the much-needed ASV could be made available and easily affordable by patients who are mainly local farmers, he added that the lack of adequate storage facility and poor power supply at the center shortened the shelf life of drugs at the center.