@article{ref1,
title="Victims' response to snakebite and socio-epidemiological factors of 1018 snakebites in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka",
journal="Wilderness and environmental medicine",
year="2014",
author="Kularatne, Abeysinghe M. and Silva, Anjana and Maduwage, Kalana and Ratnayake, Ishani and Walathara, Chmara and Ratnayake, Chanka and Mendis, Suresh and Parangama, Ranjith",
volume="25",
number="1",
pages="35-40",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Although snake bite remains a major health problem in Sri Lanka, there is a dearth of baseline information that would be useful in education about and prevention of snakebite. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe the socio-demographic characteristics, behavioral responses, treatment seeking, and prehospital interventions of snakebite victims in an area with high snakebite burden. METHODS: This prospective study was based on a cohort of snakebite victims presented to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital over a 1-year period from January 2010. RESULTS: Of the total of 1018 snakebite admissions, 69% were male and 65.8% were aged 21 to 50 years. Most of the victims were farmers (40%). The offending snakes were seen by 549 victims (54%); of these, only 46% (255) presented with a dead snake specimen. Only 38 of 1018 (4%) had first sought some form of indigenous treatment such as locally applied medications, herbal decoctions, nasal insufflations (&quot;Nasna&quot;), or applying snake stone over the bitten site. Some form of first aid had been adopted by 681 victims (67%), of whom all had washed the bitten site, and 18 victims (2%) and 4 (0.4%) had applied a dressing or incised the bitten site, respectively. A tourniquet had been applied by 353 victims (35%) for mean duration of 26 minutes (range, 5 to 120 minutes). None of the patients had immobilized the bitten limb by splinting. Oral medications had been used for pain relief in 74 cases (7%), paracetamol by all. CONCLUSIONS: A proportion of patients still seek native remedies and use inappropriate first aid after snakebite in Sri Lanka.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1080-6032",
doi="10.1016/j.wem.2013.10.009",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wem.2013.10.009"
}