Jornal de Toxicologia Clínica
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Snake Bites Envenoming Among Children in Gadarif, Eastern Sudan

Mohammed Ahmed A Ahmed, Samia O Massaad, Kamal Omer Abdalla, Saeed MOmar and Amar Mohammed Mahjoub

Snakebite is an endemic global crisis. It annually affects about 4.5 million people around the world, seriously injuring 2.7 million people, and claiming 81.000-138.000 lives. Snakebite envenoming predominantly afflicts the rural poor people. The greatest burden of snakebite is experienced in the tropical world. Sudan is one of the countries with the highest snakebite incidences and mortality rate. Children are more expose to snakebites in comparison to adults; they are at more risk of severe adverse effects due to their small sizes. The current paper focuses on epidemiology of snakebites among children in Gadarif eastern Sudan. It was a cross sectional hospital based study conducted in Gadarif from 1st June to 31st December 2018. The study comprised 56 snake bitted children, 64.3% of them were males and 35.7% were females. 94.6% of the children were from rural areas. Most of the affected children were of ages over 5 years old (89.3%) and 10.7% were ≤ 5 years old. Clinical features and complications were observed in 39.3% of the patients. 94.6% of the patients received Anti-Snake Venom (ASV). Allergic reactions to ASV were noticed in 3.6%. After treatment, 64.3% of the children were completely recovered and discharged homes, 14.3% of the children were died. Our study revealed that there was high mortality rate in children due to snakebites that were observed among delayed patients with>6 hours after being bitten. To manage the time of first aid treatment and reduce the referring patients to urban hospitals, ASV should be a part of primary health care package in Primary Health Centers and other rural medical facilities in Gadarif. Government of Sudan must improve transportation and Health bodies have to develop national local specific ASV and prepared a National Snakebite Management Protocol for best approach to deal with the problem of snakebites.