In the bid to contain the rampant incidents of snakebites in Kanke, Panshin and Shendam communities of Plateau state, the federal government has donated large quantities of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) to the Plateau state government.

Presenting the drugs at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole stated that the donation was in response to the outcry from the people in the affected communities and as part of the federal government’s intervention effort in stemming the scourge which had been ravaging the region since August 2015.

The Minister who was represented by an assistant director, Mr. Fatai Oyediran, led a team of medical experts and environmental scientists from the Federal Ministry of Health to Plateau state, informed that his team was in the state to confirm the complain, assess the current status of snakebites and carry out a sensitization and awareness campaign aimed at raising the bar in terms of prevention and control of the scourge.

He added that a survey to determine the most effective ways to control the incident within each locality would also be carried out by the experts.

Responding, the Plateau state commissioner of Health, Dr. kuden Kamshak Deyin commended the federal government for her laudable assistance to the state. He further called on the federal government to decentralise the Zamko JUTH treatment centre and upgrade it to a research centre as this would reposition the centre to cope better with the big health burden the centre was saddled with.

Commenting, 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 that the whole geographical Plateau state was a snake endemic area.

Also speaking, the medical superintendent of the Zamko treatment centre, Dr. Titus Dajel, revealed that the centre treated between 80-120 snakebite cases per month and sometimes 5 cases were reported daily particularly during farming seasons.

In view of 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 were mainly local farmers.
He also lamented poor power supply and lack of adequate storage facility at the centre. These he maintained shortened the shelf life of drugs at the centre.

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FG Donates ASV To Fight Snakebites In Plateau State