Flooding in some parts of Nigeria has resulted in an increase in snakebites in Plateau and other states.
Among those killed was the wife of the village head of Magama in Plateau’s Langtang South Local Government.
Dr. Nandul Durfa, Managing Director of a company that manufactures Anti-Snake Venom (ASV), told NAN that the situation was frightening.
“There is a huge rise in snakebite cases; one of the victims is the wife of the village head of Magama.
“Snakes and humans are all running away from the floods and would usually clash in the dry lands in the struggle for space”, he noted.
Abubakar Saidu, M.D. Balla, because farmlands are wet, snakes migrate to higher ground, where they mix with humans.
Floods, according to Balla, forced snakes to migrate or carry them from forests to homes or over river banks.
Riverine areas in Borno, Adamawa, Kogi, Gombe, and Bauchi were also affected, according to the Research Officer at Snakebite Research Hospital, Kaltungo in Gombe.
He bemoaned the fact that victims were unable to reach medical facilities because roads and bridges had been washed away or flooded.
“In the rural areas, the motorcycles help, but they cannot ride through the water now. Very often, victims reach treatment centres dead”, the expert added.