A Boon To Odisha's Snakebite Victims

As part of COVID-19 response, more ventilators are now available at district levels

- Satyasundar Barik

The Odisha government’s move to add ventilator facilities to treat COVID-19 patients is likely to provide a much-needed help for another serious health threat — snakebite.

Once the coronavirus scare recedes, the ventilators will prove a key life-saving asset for hundreds of people in the State who die due to snakebites every year. Snakebites have claimed 3,565 lives in Odisha in the past five years. In 2019-20 alone, as many as 723 persons died from snakebites. The year 2018-19 had worse numbers with 913 snakebite deaths.