Dangerous snakes, deadly snakes and medically important snakes

Silva, Anjana

doi:10.1186/1678-9199-19-26

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Cobras are also widely distributed in the country and are found up to 1500 m. Common Kraits are mainly found in the dry zone. Hump-nosed vipers are found all over the country, but mostly in the wet and intermediate zones [ 20 ][ 21 ][ 22 ][ 23 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Risk of Snakebite in Sri Lanka - A National Survey with Geospatial Analysis

et al. 2016

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BackgroundThere is a paucity of robust epidemiological data on snakebite, and data available from hospitals and localized or time-limited surveys have major limitations. No study has investigated the incidence of snakebite across a whole country. We undertook a community-based national survey and model based geostatistics to determine incidence, envenoming, mortality and geographical pattern of snakebite in Sri Lanka.Methodology/Principal FindingsThe survey was designed to sample a population distributed equally among the nine provinces of the country. The number of data collection clusters was divided among districts in proportion to their population. Within districts clusters were randomly selected. Population based incidence of snakebite and significant envenoming were estimated. Model-based geostatistics was used to develop snakebite risk maps for Sri Lanka. 1118 of the total of 14022 GN divisions with a population of 165665 (0.8%of the country’s population) were surveyed. The crude overall community incidence of snakebite, envenoming and mortality were 398 (95% CI: 356–441), 151 (130–173) and 2.3 (0.2–4.4) per 100000 population, respectively. Risk maps showed wide variation in incidence within the country, and snakebite hotspots and cold spots were determined by considering the probability of exceeding the national incidence.Conclusions/SignificanceThis study provides community based incidence rates of snakebite and envenoming for Sri Lanka. The within-country spatial variation of bites can inform healthcare decision making and highlights the limitations associated with estimates of incidence from hospital data or localized surveys. Our methods are replicable, and these models can be adapted to other geographic regions after re-estimating spatial covariance parameters for the particular region.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Risk of Snakebite in Sri Lanka - A National Survey with Geospatial Analysis

et al. 2016

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“…As previously shown in a study by Alves et al [26], when evaluating a set of pictures of local snakes and three worm lizards, the subjects called the whole set as “snakes”, disregarding the worm lizards as another taxonomic group. Thus, in human eyes, snakes represent a distinct group of animals, which is also reflected in the theory of attentional prioritization of snakes as an evolutionary relevant threat [47,48,99]. Moreover, people tend to extend this group even to other animals that are not snakes per see, but at least look like them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Attitude toward Reptiles: A Relationship between Fear, Disgust, and Aesthetic Preferences

Janovcová

Rádlová

Polák

et al. 2019

Animals

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Focusing on one group of animals can bring interesting results regarding our attitudes toward them and show the key features that our evaluation of such animals is based on. Thus, we designed a study of human perception of all reptiles focusing on the relationship between perceived fear, disgust, and aesthetic preferences and differences between snakes and other reptiles. Two sets containing 127 standardized photos of reptiles were developed, with one species per each subfamily. Respondents were asked to rate the animals according to fear, disgust, and beauty on a seven-point Likert scale. Evaluation of reptile species shows that people tend to perceive them as two clearly distinct groups based on their similar morphotype. In a subset of lizards, there was a positive correlation between fear and disgust, while disgust and fear were both negatively correlated with beauty. Surprisingly, a positive correlation between fear and beauty of snakes was revealed, i.e., the most feared species also tend to be perceived as beautiful. Snakes represent a distinct group of animals that is also reflected in the theory of attentional prioritization of snakes as an evolutionary relevant threat.

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“…Cobra and krait bites mainly cause neurotoxic effects while viper bites are principally associated with haematological abnormalities and soft tissue damage. Sri Lankan Russell’s viper bites could also cause neurotoxicity [ 2 – 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health seeking behavior following snakebites in Sri Lanka: Results of an island wide community based survey

et al. 2017

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IntroductionSri Lanka has a population of 21 million and about 80,000 snakebites occur annually. However, there are limited data on health seeking behavior following bites. We investigated the effects of snakebite and envenoming on health seeking behavior in Sri Lanka.MethodsIn a community-based island-wide survey conducted in Sri Lanka 44,136 households were sampled using a multistage cluster sampling method. An individual who reported experiencing a snakebite within the preceding 12 months was considered a case. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain details of the bite and health seeking behavior among cases.ResultsAmong 165,665 individuals surveyed, there were 695 snakebite victims. 682 (98.1%) had sought health care after the bite; 381 (54.8%) sought allopathic treatment and 301 (43.3%) sought traditional treatment. 323 (46.5%) had evidence of probable envenoming, among them 227 (70.3%) sought allopathic treatment, 94 (29.1%) sought traditional treatment and 2 did not seek treatment. There was wide geographic variation in the proportion of seeking allopathic treatment from <20% in the Western province to > 90% in the Northern province. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that seeking allopathic treatment was independently associated with being systemically envenomed (Odds Ratio = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.36–2.90, P < 0.001), distance to the healthcare facility (OR = 1.13 per kilometer, 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.17, P < 0.001), time duration from the bite (OR = 0.49 per day, 95% CI: 0.29–0.74, P = 0.002), and the local incidence of envenoming (OR = 1.31 for each 50 per 100,000, 95% CI: 1.19–1.46, P < 0.001) and snakebite (OR = 0.90 for each 50 per 100,000, 95% CI: 0.85–0.94, P < 0.001) in the relevant geographic area.ConclusionsIn Sri Lanka, both allopathic and traditional treatments are sought following snakebite. The presence of probable envenoming was a major contribution to seeking allopathic treatment.

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Dangerous snakes, deadly snakes and medically important snakes

Cited by 14 publications

References 6 publications

Mapping the Risk of Snakebite in Sri Lanka - A National Survey with Geospatial Analysis

Mapping the Risk of Snakebite in Sri Lanka - A National Survey with Geospatial Analysis

Human Attitude toward Reptiles: A Relationship between Fear, Disgust, and Aesthetic Preferences

Health seeking behavior following snakebites in Sri Lanka: Results of an island wide community based survey

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