India is known as the land of the snakes, but "Land of Snakebite Deaths" might be more appropriate. With one of the highest mortality rates of snake bites in the world, what is India doing wrong? And can it be fixed?

Snakebite is a major occupational hazard in a country where farmers typically walk barefoot along field bunds. While we can exhort them to wear footwear, it will take years for this long-observed practice to change. People also tend to walk in the dark without a torch. For several decades, the price of disposable batteries was prohibitive for ordinary villagers, but the use of the new, affordable Chinese-made rechargeable torches may reduce the death toll. The other habit that puts rural people in harm’s way is sleeping on the floor. When farm economy is floundering, advising them to sleep on bedsteads will only elicit blank, uncomprehending stares. If people get bitten and are rushed to the hospital, the lack of doctors, trained in treating snakebite, as well as the limited availability and effectiveness of antivenom serum, jeopardize their lives further.

The only way to save a person from a lethal venomous snakebite is the administration of antivenom serum, even though too many people rely on superstition and alternative forms of medicine. Indians have had a surefire way of surviving a lethal bite as early as the 1920s, when the Central Research Institute began producing this life-saving drug commercially. Yet, almost a century later, despite snakebite continuing to be a major public health crisis, the availability of antivenom serum in small towns and villages, where bites usually occur, is limited.

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After the bump, a video of a "snake girl of India" and her pet cobras. An example of non-medical treatments and improper animal management for the area.