By Winnie Kamau
Baringo County, Kenya: Jepngok Kiptui was just three when she was bitten by a snake while sleeping in her bed at their home in Emsos in Baringo County.
“It was around eight in the night and the kids were asleep, but it seems the snake was already in the house and probably wanted to leave” her father, Patrick Kigen narrates.
“The snake crawled outside the net against her left hand and bit her when she moved it. She screamed. I switched on my torch, only to see a cobra coiled on the floor, with its head raised. I pulled the children out and left the snake there.”
Getting to the hospital was difficult, like proximity to medical facilities, mobile phone reception, and rough terrains all worked against them. It took them more than five hours to get to the county’s main referral hospital, after being referred from two hospitals that lacked the capacity to treat her.
Little Kiptui had to undergo three surgeries, the first was to remove the dead tissues killed by the snake’s venom, and two skin grafting surgeries. She was left-handed then but had to learn to use her right hand, as she was no longer able to use her disfigured left hand.
Cases of snakebites in Baringo County are common, it is an uphill task to access treatment and also expensive to treat snake bites. Kenya imports antivenoms and this makes treatment expensive for rural communities to afford.
“This is not the first time a child is bitten by a snake in my family. His younger brother was also bitten by a snake earlier in the year, and we rushed him to the hospital and he recovered well. There are many snakes in the area, we just have to cope with them,” he adds.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO) Neglected Tropical Diseases list, every year, an estimated 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes, up to 2.7 million of whom are bitten by venomous snakes, resulting in the death of more than 100,000 people and life-long disfigurement and disability for 400,000 more.
As the world marked on 19th September the International Snakebite Awareness day it is to be noted that the venomous snakebites predominantly afflict the rural poor, including migrant workers, farmers, and displaced people fleeing conflict or violence, and kills more people than any other disease on World Health Organization (WHO’s) Neglected Tropical Diseases list.
MSF says they have witnessed the devastating impact of snakebites on victims, their families, and communities in many of the places they work in, including in East Africa. Beyond death and severe disability, snakebite survivors also often suffer from stigma and discrimination, and many families are driven into debt in their attempts to access timely and appropriate treatment.
Another case we captured was four-year-old Cheptete Lochariang’olei was bitten by a puff adder at 9 in the morning while playing outside their home in Nadome in Baringo County. Cheptete and her family walked for nine hours to Nasorot were some traditional healers put a ‘black stone’ that was believed to suck out the antivenom from the point where one has been bitten by a snake. When the swelling was not getting any better, they started their journey to Kuchatis where he was injected with an initial dose of antivenom and referred to Chemolingot Hospital.
In 2019, WHO launched a strategy on the prevention and control of snakebite envenoming, with the ambitious targets to cut in half the number of snakebite deaths and cases of disability by 2030.
MSF in 2019 admitted more than 4,000 patients to its clinics for snakebite, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East.
In Kenya, MSF had gathered reports as of December 2018 of 300 people had been bitten by snakes in Baringo County, with residents not receiving timely treatment. Another problem that emanated from the snakebites was the medical staff was largely untrained on the management of snakebite victims and administration of antivenoms.
A three-month intervention in collaboration with MSF and the Ministry of Health was launched in Tiaty Sub – County of Baringo from April to June 2019. Here 24 snakebite victims with about 10 cases spread around in the rest of Baringo were managed during this period. The team carried out clinical training for 233 health care workers and 154 Community health extension workers, Community Volunteers, and Community resource persons.
