A seventh-grade student of Mazdia Madrasa Para in Pabna’s Ishwardi Sara Union died of a poisonous snakebite on Wednesday.
According to family sources, the deceased, Hossain, 13, son of Morshed Alam, a farmer of Mazdia Madrasa and a seventh-grade student of Mazdia High School, was bitten by a poisonous snake while he was sleeping at around 12:30 pm on Wednesday. Relatives rushed him to Ishwardi Upazila Health Complex for treatment.
However, as there was no vaccine, the doctor on duty suggested the victim to go to Pabna immediately without admitting him. He later died on the way to Pabna Medical Hospital. Shara UP chairman Emdadul Haque Rana Sardar confirmed that Hossain was killed by a snake bite.
There is no vaccine for snakebite patients in the 50-bed Upazila Health Complex of Ishwardi, which has received a dozen awards in healthcare. Patients are being deprived of medical services as the government has stopped providing vaccines for a long time. Doctors are sending patients to other hospitals without providing services. For these reasons, patients bitten by poisonous snakes are dying without treatment.
Seriously sick patients bitten by snakes have to go to Pabna or Rajshahi for treatment. The distance by road from Ishwardi to Rajshahi is 100 km and to Pabna is 28 km. As a result, the condition of the patients who go for treatment in Rajshahi or Pabna after a long journey and time becomes worse. Many dies before reaching the hospital.
Morshed Alam, the father of the deceased Hossain, said, “If Ishwardi Hospital had a vaccine to treat a snakebite patient, my son would not have died.”
Ishwardi Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Dr. FA Asma Khanam said, “There was no supply of vaccines for the treatment of patients bitten by snakes for a long time. Vaccines have to be brought from Pabna when needed. One file of vaccine costs one thousand taka.
It costs Tk 10,000 to vaccinate a patient with 10 files. It takes a long time to bring the vaccine from Pabna for the treatment of the infected patient. By then the patient's condition worsens. So that is why Hossain was suggested to go to Pabna or Rajshahi quickly as we have no vaccine.”