Epidemiological study of snake bite cases in Government General Hospital, Guntur

Introduction: India is estimated to have the highest snakebite mortality in the world. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates place the number of bites to be 83,000 per annum with 11,000 deaths. Material & Methods: It was a hospital based retrospective study done in Government General Hospital, Guntur. Retrospective analysis was done from the case records over the past 1 year from January 2014 to December 2014. A pre designed, pre tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect information. Information regarding demographic characteristics like age, sex, time of bite and morbidity & mortality data was collected from the case sheets. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel 2007 and analysis done by using SPSS version 17. Data was presented in percentages and proportions. Results: A total of 93 snake bite case records were available in the study period. Among them, 68 (73.1%) were males and 25 (26.9%) were females. Mean age was found to be 28±2.5 years. Majority of the snake bite cases were recorded during the months of June to October. Snake bite cases occurred mostly in the lower limbs (45%), and in hands & arms (31%). only about 13% of the snake bite cases reached health care unit within 1 hour of bite.