Policy documents & developments to watch
- Interesting to see the NCDC take on the Indian snakebite agenda under their OneHealth portfolio. See their National Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Snakebite Envenoming (NAPSE) which demonstrates quite some consultations/involvement of snakebite folks (MCBT among others including Rom and team).
- One of NAPSE’s action points is to make snakebite a notifiable disease - a significant policy achievement which of course can only be realised if the system of notification itself can become easier and engaging of formal and informal private sector. Update as on Dec 28 2024: Snakebite has now been made a notifiable disease with GoI writing this to all state governments. It appears Karnataka might have been the pioneer in this (TN too has done it a li’l after), and now with the NAPSE recommendation coming into policy, there is likely to be a nation-wide notificaiton requirement for snakebite.
- https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01905-X/fulltext#back-bib11 Lancet article by Bhaumik, Gopalakrishnan & Meena on the chronic aspects/morbidity post-snakebite
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33257419/ Bhaumik et. al. 2020 Scoping review on mental health issues following snakebite. This is a scoping reivew. “Of the 11 studies reported, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was the most commonly studied mental health condition after snakebite, with five studies reporting it. Estimate of the burden of PTSD after snakebite was available from a modelling study. The other mental health conditions reported were focused around depression, psychosocial impairment of survivors after a snakebite envenomation, hysteria, delusional disorders and acute stress disorders.” “depression and PTSD are major mental health manifestations in snakebite survivors.”
- https://bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-023-02109-2 Structural capacity and continuum of snakebite care in the primary health care system in India: a cross-sectional assessment Bhaumik, Norton & Jagnoor 2023 Generally paints a poor picture of PHC and CHC preparedness with respct to securing snakeite care “Comprehensive strengthening of primary health care, across all domains, and throughout the continuum of care, instead of a piece-meal approch towards health systems strengthening, is necessitated to reduce snakebite burden in India, and possibly other high-burden nations with weak health systems. Health facility surveys are necessitated for this purpose.”
- See Dal Singh & Aghani Bai’s story in JSS’s An Atlas of Rural Health which is available for free reading/download on the PARI website
- Chapter on Snakebite & public health for Rom
Last updated: 2025-12-30 16:03