Ilorin residents cry out for help as snakes take over city

Residents of Ilorin, the Kwara state capital have expressed concerns and worries over recent upsurge in the quantity of snakes around the town.The development according to The Guardian sources showed that at least three patients are at present receiving treatments at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), from snake bites. Besides, the state’s General Hospital along Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Ilorin, has some patients on admission over snakebites related cases.

A teacher at the University of Ilorin, department of Geography, AbdulRaheem Jimoh attributed the increase in the number of snakes to heavy rains that have led to the dislodgement of the snakes from their natural habitat.

But a source under condition of anonymity at the Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA), said the development could not be divorced from unkempt and bushy environments.

One of the patients on admission at the UITH was said to have suffered a high degree of snakebite while attempting to pluck foliage from a ‘Dogonyaro’ tree for preparation of malaria herbs.

Former Chairman of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (PCN), Kwara state chapter, Babatunde Samuel deplored the scarcity of anti snake vaccines in Nigeria, noting that the development could engender high mortality/morbidity rate in persons bitten by the reptile.

Samuel, who apart from seeing the vaccines as very exorbitant for the peasants, “who are most prone to the attacks,” said the need to have the certification of the NAFDAC before they could be dispensed has further made the venoms very scarce to procure, “especially during emergency needs.”

A Consultant Cardiologist at the UITH, Dr. Ayo Ogunmodede encouraged victims of the snakebites to be taken to the hospital without delay for immediate first aid treatment, in order to boost their prompt responses to treatments.