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News Headlines
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Written by Ishola Michael, Gombe
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Ever since the encounter between Eve and the snake in the Bible snakes have not been friends to human beings. No mater its size and look it is one animal that no one wants to come in contact with anytime of the day. Encounters between it and human beings end mostly in bloodshed. Either the snake or man ends up in the grave. The Oxford University Dictionary defines the Snake as ‘a predatory reptile with a long slender limbless subtle body, many of which kinds have a venomous bite’.
 Precisely in the Christian holy Bible God decreed that “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shall thou go, and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel”.
This is the story of the hilly Kaltungo area of Gombe State. Snakes have remained a nightmare to the inhabitants of the area as they die on regular basis from the bites of dangerous and venomous creatures that abound in their thousands in the area. The rainy season is the period of their rally and massive attacks.
In August this year alone, nine out of over 300 patients admitted for treatment of snake bite at the Kaltungo General Hospital Snake Bite Treatment Centre in Gombe state have lost their lives as a result of lack of drugs to treat them.
The Kaltungo Snake Bite Treatment Centre which was initially established by the Gombe state government was taken over by the Federal Government in 1999 and transformed into a centre for the treatment of snake bite victims from the 8 Northern states .
The Chief Medical officer Dr Abubakar Saidu Balla said that nine patients died out of about 300 patients admitted in the month of August. According to him from January toAugust the centre received over 1600 patients from Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Jigawa, Gombe, Taraba, Plateau, Nassarawa and Abuja out of which about 30 died.
Dr. Saidu Balla explained that the high rate of deaths recorded was as a result of non availability of the anti snake venom which was usually administered free because most of the victims were peasant farmers or cattle breeders who could not afford to pay the N30, 000.00 cost of treatment.
According to him, ‘for now we have no option than to ask patient to buy the four valves of fav afrique vaccine which is the only one available in the open market, we are using Echitab-G or Echitab plus vaccine for the treatment of patient”
In his words “ we use Echitab-G or Echitab plus, because it is a special anti snake venom, but four vales of Fav Afrique vaccine would use to treat the patient which cost about 7,000 naira per valve. Over 20 patients have absconded from their treatment bed as they cannot afford to buy the valves”.
Some patients at the centre Malam Sallau Abu from Karim Lamido in Taraba state, Usman from Bayo in Borno state, and Malam Isa and Haruna both from Adamawa state expressed concern that their daughters might die because they have no money to buy the drugs .
According to Mallam Isa the money he used for transportation to the hospital was raised by his neighbours and he cannot afford to pay for the treatment. He told journalists, “ I have no body to help me.The only option left for me is to go home and wait for God’s time’’
On the other hand Mallam Haruna said his family was able to get N13, 000 for only 2 vales. Now he has no money to complete the treatment, saying, “I have taken the two vales since two days ago and no money to complete the remaining two, I am waiting for God intervention’’.
The Gombe State Commissioner for Health, Dr.Muhammad Isa Umar said he was aware of the problem and that the state government had placed order for N4 million worth of anti snake venom which is expected to arrive the country in the next four weeks. He said that state government had informed the Federal Ministry of Health on the matter and appealed to the other eight northern state governments whose indigenes patronize the hospital to assist in its funding.
Similarly the Chairman of Kaltungo Local Government, Shehu Kanar said that he is disturbed by the increasing deaths at the Centre. The Local council had just secured approval for the purchase of 2 million naira anti snake venom in addition to the 1.7 million naira drugs earlier supplied. He announced plans by the council to construct a 24 bed ward at the centre to reduce the congestion usually experienced during heavy rainfall, harvest of crops and clearing of farmlands for planting.
The member of House of Representatives representing Kaltungo/Shongom Federal Constituency Adamu Gora Kalba, has alo donated the sum of N250, 000 to the Snake-Bite victims at the Snake Bite Treatment Center in Kaltungo General Hospital saying that the donation was aimed at assisting the victims get some of the drugs and anti snake venom needed for their treatment.
Gora Kalba then commended the Federal, State and Kaltungo Local Governments for the supply of the Anti-snake Venom free of charge to the Hospital and called on other well to do individuals and NGOs to complement government efforts in that direction.
While responding to the donation of the money by the Federal law maker, the Medical Director in Charge of Kaltungo General Hospital Dr. Joseph Mathew lamented the increased cases of snake –bite patients in the Hospital which has led to the congestion of the snake-bite ward therefore over stretching it’s facilities.
Joseph Mathew thanked the Federal Lawmaker for the kind gesture which he said will go a long way in assisting the patients as well as the Center get the required doses of the anti-snake venom calling on others to emulate the gesture since according to him the task is a joint responsibility.
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