Cebu City lacks antivenom for snake bites–city vet

CEBU CITY, Philippines —Does Cebu City have antivenom for snake bites?

Apparently, there’s none, according to Dr. Jess Maribojoc from the Cebu City Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries.

Why Cebu City does not have antivenom

Meanwhile, according to Communicable Disease Section of the Department of Health Central Visayas (DOH-7), DOH-7 “does not have snake bites and antivenom program in Region 7.”

The only known antivenom, or antivenin, for snake bites, particularly caused by Philippine Cobras, is called Purified Cobra Antivenin (PCAV).

PCAV’s recipients are usually the farmers from Bicol and Nueva Ecija as these are the places that have a high number of recorded cases of snake bites, according to a report from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) of the Department of Health (DOH).

PCAV is housed at the RITM, a health research facility in Muntinlupa City.

Moreover, RITM said in their official site that they were partnering with public and private hospitals in delivering PCAV to snake bite patients.

PCAV infographic from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine

The recent news of a 12-year-old boy dying due to a snake bite raised concerns on having antivenom ready in cities and towns.

No facility yet

Maribojoc has confirmed that there is still no facility in the city for people who will get bitten by venomous snakes.

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with an official from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Region 7 (DENR-7), he said that cases like this would “mostly” be handled by “RITM.”

“Kanang mga mapakaan, DOH (RITM) gyud na sila. Adto gyud na sila sa hospital. Ang tambal ana nila is antivenom,” said Rainier Manlegro from the Enforcement Division of DENR-7.

(Those that would be bitten, they would be handled by DOH (RITM). They would go to the hospital. The medicine for that is antivenom.)

“Sa Cebu since wala man kaayo tay incident with regards to snake bites, so wala kaayo ta ana (antivenom). Mao nang kung mapakaan ta dinhi og bitin, kasagarang maturok sa atoa [kay] anti tetanus lang gyud,” he said.

(In Cebu since we don’t have incidents with regards to snake bites, so we don’t have that (antivenom). So if somebody will get bitten her by a snake, the most that can be injected here is only anti tetanus.)

Why Cebu should have an antivenom

Manlegro hopes that there will be an antivenom here in Cebu in the future.

“Hopefully, naa na intawn diri [sa] Cebu kay wa man gud ta kahibaw sa posibilidad nga mapaakan intawn og Cobra nya naa na raba tay mga sighting dinhi nga Cobra,” he said.

(Hopefully, we have that here [in] Cebu because we don’t know the possibility of somebody being bitten by a cobra and then there are really sightings here of a cobra.)

Venomous snakes

Venomous snakes like Philippine Cobras are a “stocky, highly venomous species,” according to Maribojoc, and are also “very dangerous.”

“In fact, it is one of only 14 cobra species that will even seemingly spit at their threats. Research shows that this snake is one of the most venomous in the world, and the venom could lead to human death within just 30 minutes,” she said.

Maribijoc said that Cobras were “primarily found widely [in] mountainous jungle to tropical places and “they can live close to human settlements.”

Moreover, she said that Cobras were endemic, specifically in the Visayas and Mindanao island group, and according to Manlegro, cobras are not endemic in Cebu.

Boy dies from snake bite in S. Leyte

Last Saturday, August 5, a snake bite killed a 12-year-old boy in Sogod, Southern Leyte.

When he was brought to the district hospital, the attending physician advised to bring the young boy to Tacloban City, a highly urbanized city, for better treatment since there was no antivenin in the district hospital.

The boy, unfortunately, did not make it.

His sister, Mariefe Cuyno, pleaded for antivenom supply in rural areas.

“Sa among ospital sa Sogod, dapat naay anti-venom sa haas kay basig naa na puy mahitabo, naa na pu’y kinabuhi nga mawa,” she told CDN Digital on August 6.

(There must be antivenom for snakes in our hospital in Sogod because there might be another case of snake bites, another life might be lost.)

Netizens call for antivenom supplies

Moreover, after learning the news, the netizens also commented on CDN Digital’s post, calling for anti-venom supplies.

“This year lang, andami ng namamatay na mga Filipino sa ating bansa dahil sa cobra dapat bigyan na eto ng pansin ng gob[y]erno di na to biro dahil dumadami na talaga ang cobra sa Pinas sa Cebu ang dami din cobra sa mga gubat,” Carlo Angelo Barena commented.

(This year alone, there are many Filipinos in our country who died because of the cobra. The government should focus their attention on this. This is no longer a joke because there are many cobras in the Philippines, in Cebu and there are many cobras in the forest.)

“Kaya dapat ang mga hospital meron talaga[ng] anti venom. Ito ang hindi nila napag tutuonan,” Agnes Alipio Namujhe said.

(So the hospital should have really antivenom. This is not what they did not focus on.)

On the other hand, the netizens also suspected based on the description of the report that the cobra that killed the young boy was a Samar Cobra.

/bmjo

READ MORE:

What you should do when bitten by a snake

Netizens on cobra spotted in San Fernando, Cebu: ‘Kahadlok!’

Farmer dies after he is bitten by a snake in Barili

/dbs