Under the surface: Nepal’s snakebite epidemic demands urgent attention as the poor continue to suffer

Sandhya Kumari Mahato of Bateshwor rural municipality was fast asleep when a snake slithered into the room and bit the 5-year-old . The young girl was rushed to the community snakebite centre and was later referred to the Phul Kumar Memorial Hospital where she breathed her last.

This is not a solitary case as snakebites in Nepal are a medical emergency. According to a journal , an estimated 40,000 people get bitten by snakes annually and among them, little over 3,000 lose their lives. This is only in the 23 districts in the Tarai and does not include cases that are not reported. And the number is rising every year says Hemant Ojha, head of the Zoonotic Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division .