Management of Snake Bite in India.

I is a country known to the western population as a country of snake charmersand snake over centuries . Despi te generation after generations some families in our country who play with snakes(snake charmers), we fail to protect the community from snake bite which requires atleast education of the common people, how to protect themselves from snake bite as well as what to do after the bite has occurred. The estimated death in India is 50,000/ yr , an underest imate because of lack of proper registrat ion o f snakeb i te . The persons or population at risk of snakebite in our country is around 50 million people which may occur any time in the life. There are large number of conflicting protocolsfor dealing with first aid and treatment. In 2004,WHO established a snakebite Treatment Group,whose role was to develop recommendations toreduce mortality according to international norms.A primary recommendation was to establish asingle protocol for both first-aid and treatmentwhich c o n t a i n e d e v i d e n c e b a s e d procedures and was relevant to the Indian context. In July 2006, A National Snakebite Conference was convened,including Indian and International experts. Moreover publications issued by the WHO RegionalOff ice for South-East Asia, written and edited byDavid A.Warrell in the year 2015 and enduringefforts of the scientist and doctors working indifferent regions of India is the back bone of this Editorial.We have treated about 10000 cases of snake bitepatients in Medical Col lege Hospitals , K o l k a t a , Ta r a k e s w e r R u r a l Hospitals andSeba NursingHome, Tarakeswar, Hooghly, West Bengal, SRIHospitals, Betai, Nadia, West Bengal since 1987.