School dinner shock: Over a hundred children in India fall ill with snake!

School dinner shock: Over a hundred children in India fall ill with snake!

In a worrying incident in India, over a hundred schoolchildren in the city of Mokama, Bihar, have suffered after consuming contaminated food with a dead snake. The chef at school had removed the snake and still served the food, which now leads to a comprehensive examination by the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC). The military and the police were switched on because the parents and villagers organized protests and even blocked roads according to the diseases to draw attention to the unsustainable conditions. The NHRC calls for a detailed report on the health of the children concerned by the governmental authorities.

BIHAR is one of the poorest states of India and is known for his program, which offers free school meals to promote the schooling and formation of children. A tragic incident that brought up the security situation in schools already occurred in 2013 when 23 children died in Bihar after eating a meal contaminated with pesticides. This event led to significant improvements in food safety in the schools in the state. Now the security of school catering is again in question.

snake bites in Africa: a neglected topic

In another part of the world, more precisely in Nairobi, Kenya, the Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Center works on an urgently needed solution for the problem of snake bite poisoning. These are classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as category A of the neglected tropical diseases, since they often go hand in hand with high morbidity and mortality. A central problem in Africa is the low availability of antivenome therapies, since the region is heavily dependent on imported antivenoma preparations that are often ineffective.

The Center in Nairobi follows a new approach and develops local antivenom products. This represents significant progress for Kenya and East Africa, where the treatment offers in the past have often been inadequate. Information shows that the need for effective antivenomes in this region is enormous, since the frequency of snake bites is particularly high and is often subdued. Studies suggest that the incidence of snake bites in rural areas may be significantly underestimated, which in turn underlines the urgency of research and development in this area.

global challenges and solutions

The lack of availability of antivenoma is a strong symptom for the challenges with which African health systems are faced. In various reports, the WHO has pointed out the need to draw attention to the prevention and control of snake bite poisoning. Initiatives to promote better health formation in the municipalities could help reduce the number of seizures and improve the survival rates.

For more information about the incident in India, please read the article at vienna.at . Details on the global challenges related to snake bites can be found on Nature.com .