ICMR task force takes up study on snakebite incidences in India
shimla: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) task force has started a study on the incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite in the country.
First-of-its-kind in India, the study will look prospectively at the incidence of snakebite covering 13 states, including Himachal Pradesh, in five zones of India and a population of 84 million. The other states are Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Tripura. An article on the study 'ICMR task force project- survey of the incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite in India: A study protocol' was also published in the international research journal Plos One on August 23, 2022. The national Principal Investigator for the ICMR study is Dr Jaideep C. Menon from Preventive Cardiology & Population Health Sciences, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Kochi, Kerala, while Dr Omesh Bharti, State Epidemiologist with Department of Health in Himachal Pradesh is the national Principal Co-Investigator.
"This study will generate real data on snakebite incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite for the first time in the country to help the decision makers in policy framing to prevent and control snakebite in India. The country still doesn't know the real snakebite burden and is hence groping in the dark when it comes to policy," said Dr Omesh Bharti, the national Principal Co-Investigator for the study at Shimla.
He said the survey is in progress and it takes into consideration all the geographical areas like hilly, plains, marshy, desert and coastal. "It is the first such study design for the survey of snakebite incidence in South East Asia. Sri Lanka has done it, but they covered a population of 1 per cent only, whereas our study would cover a population of 6.12 per cent," said Dr Bharti. "The snakebite incidence study is being carried out in 31 districts in six geographical zones in the country, including West, Central, South, East, North and North-East in 13 states. Three districts of Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, Chamba and Una, are also included in it" he says.
According to the article on 'study protocol' to know snakebite incidence, snakebite is possibly the most neglected of the NTDs (Neglected Tropical Diseases). Half of the global deaths due to venomous snakebites, estimated at 100,000 per year, occur in India. The only representative data on snakebite available from India is the mortality data from the RGI-MDS study (Registrar General of India- 1 Million Death Study) and another study on mortality from the state of Bihar. The incidence data on snakebite is available for 2 districts of the state of West Bengal only.
It was only in 2017 that snakebite was added back onto the WHO list of NTDs, after being struck off the list in 2013.
Geographically, the greatest impact of snakebite is in the tropical and subtropical regions, with the highest occurrence in India. Global estimates of snakebite range from 4.5 million to 5.4 million bites annually with an estimated 2 million of them in India.
