West Sepik out of antivenom

National

By YVONNE KAMBIBEL
THERE is no antivenom for snake bites in health facilities across West Sepik, a health worker says.
Health extension officer (HEO) Jemma Kuma, at Raihu Rural Hospital in Aitape, told The National that all medical facilities in the province had run out of antivenom since last week.
“Both the provincial hospital in Vanimo and our level four hospital here in Aitape including all our lower level health facilities in both centres could not attend to cases of snake bites at the moment without antivenom,” she said.
Kuma said the common types of venomous snakes in the area were the death adder and sea snakes.
“We have circulated this message since last week when our supplies ran out because we want the public to be careful especially during the dry season.”
Kuma said that during the dry season, they could receive multiple cases of snake bite a month.
“Our pharmacy in Vanimo also ran out of stocks of antidotes to treat snake bites of these death adders, including sea snakes so we have plans to buy them at the area medical store in Wewak,” she said.
Kuma said this would take a while as the priority would be given to health facilities in East Sepik.
“At this stage, we cannot assure our patients on when the antidotes will be here especially, at the two major hospitals in the province so we would like our people to take heed of this warning,” she said.
Kuma said the process of acquiring the antivenom was lengthy as lower level health facilities needed to place orders at the two main hospitals once the antidotes were present.
Kuma also clarified that out of the seven lower level health facilities in West Sepik, five were under the Aitape Catholic Health services where funding was a major challenge.
She encouraged people to be careful during this dry season.