Residents of the Sissala East Municipality have expressed worry over the rampant snakebites in the area amid shortage of anti-snake venom (ASV) in the Tumu hospital, a situation they fear could endanger lives.

In November alone, 15 persons were bitten by snakes revealing a rather strange phenomenon as compared to other months.

Clifford Vengkumwini, the Sissala East Municipal Director of Health Services, told the GNA that the municipality had run out of the crucial medication to save lives from the snakebites.

“We have ran out of the anti-snake serum last week. We requested some from the Regional Medical Stores but we are yet to receive. In the last cases, the patient’s relatives had to buy from the open market”, he said.

Vengkumwini said the municipality recorded seven cases in July, two in August, two in September, and zero in October, while March recorded the highest number with 12 cases.

He said, “We recorded a total of 15 cases in November comprising eight males and seven females. This shifts the trend of cases. There is a surge in cases of snake bites with the new peak in November with 15 cases”.

Many residents mostly farmers who spend long hours on their farms expressed worry over the absence of anti-snake venom and the increasing danger it posed.

Some community members who suffered snakebites described the high cost of buying the medicine from the open market as unbearable.

Lutuf Nibisi, a resident who had to buy the anti-snake serum told the GNA that the situation was frightening for farmers.

“We are always in the bush. Without the anti-snake medicine, our lives are at risk. Initially when I went out to buy the medicine one pharmacy said they did not have and another Pharmacy sold it for GH¢850.00 and this I thought was too costly and if you didn’t buy your patient’s life could be in danger”.

A visit by the GNA to the Tumu hospital led to one situation of a nursing mother Muniratu Asmiru from Jawia in the Sissala West District who was been treated after she got a snake bite on her farm during harvesting of her grains.

She was asked to buy the anti-snake serum outside of the facility.

Madam Muniratu who got bitten by a snake in a sister District appealed for urgent help saying, “We could not afford the medicine easily. The government should assist us because this anti-snake venom is the only effective treatment for poisonous snakebites”.

Investigation by the GNA also indicated that some two children that got bitten early in the year died out of the attack but that cannot be linked to the absence of the anti-snake serum.

Osman Kanton, the Health Committee chairman in the Sissala East Municipality, urged government and health authorities to speed up the supply of anti-snake serum to the Sissala East hospital to prevent avoidable casualties especially during this period of harvesting.

He advised farmers to put on protective clothing, especially wellington booths anytime they go to the farm.