There are 80 snakebite patients and six snakebite deaths in Kanbalu District in Sagaing Region. There is an urgent need for anti-venom as most of the snakebite patients are Internally Displaced People (IDPs), according to Kyunghla-Kanbalu Activists Group.
After the coup, the displaced people who were bitten by snakes in Kanbalu district ranged between 8 to 61 years old. During the first two weeks of early June, one person per day is being bitten, said an official of the Kyunghla-Kanbalu activists group.
Vipers and cobras are the most abundant in the area.
The official said that there is a need for expert doctors and medicine for snakebite patients.
As a matter of fact, there are no expert doctors. Health staff who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) are present here. They did not give treatment to snakebite patients.
“A 47-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man faced poisonous snakebites, on 18 June, a 50-year-old man on 19 June and a 30-year-old woman on 20 June in Kanbalu District,” the official added.
As far as I know, the patient who was bitten by poisonous snakes is not connected to the media or what, so I cannot say exactly. But in Kanbalu district, snake bites are very common. In Sagaing Region, except for Kanbalu District, snakebites are hardly seen. Snake bites are reported in Kanbalu District. No other area has risen so badly, he said.
Locals from Koehtaungboe, Chatthin and Pintthar villages in Kanbalu District are taking shelter in the forests as the military council and Pyu Saw Htee are torching the villages. In May, the number of IDPs reached 50,000, according to Kyunhla-Kanbalu Activists Group.
The number of snakebites in the local area is increasing, and there is a need for BPI anti-venom injections. A snakebite patient gets up to four BPI- anti-venom injections, said the persons helping the IDPs in Kanbalu.
“I would like to request the public to help each other as the number of snakebite patients has increased in these stations. We expect to get a medicine quota allocated by the health department under the National Unity Government (NUG). In the previous months, medicine quotas were received. I need to ask them whether the medicine quota is received or not now,” he said.
Most snakebite victims are those who fled to forests due to the arsons by the military council and Pyu Saw Htee in Kyunhla and Kanbalu Districts in May, he continued.
The people from Kyunhla-Kanbalu region said they are facing a danger of snakes in addition to the military council’s shootings, arrests, torture and burning of the villages.
Sent by NMG