Karnataka H1N1 death audit committee to include snakebite casualties

Bengaluru: The state health department's H1N1 death audit committee will now also audit deaths due to snakebites, as per a government order released on Monday.

In February last year, the state government declared snakebites a notifiable disease under Section 3 of the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020. As a direct result of this declaration, the recorded number of cases saw a massive jump, going from 6,596 bites and 19 deaths in 2023 to 13,235 cases and 100 deaths in 2024.

The state health department has since focused on improving Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) stocks from Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to district hospitals and implementing an SOP to administer an initial loading dose of 10 vials for all snakebite cases where signs and symptoms of envenomation are clear. Medical officers have also been trained to manage such cases.

However, some challenges persist, such as incomplete or delayed reporting of cases, especially from medical colleges and private hospitals, victims seeking treatment from traditional faith healers, thus losing time, and the lack of adequate community awareness and continuous training of officers in peripheral areas.

A government order dated April 8, 2025, has now noted that the H1N1 death audit committee at the state and district levels is also assigned the responsibility of auditing deaths due to snakebites.

"All the deputy commissioners of the districts are hereby authorised to review the audit of the deaths due to snakebites in the committee already constituted under the official memorandum read at (3) above," read the order made public on Monday.

They must review snakebite cases in the district once a quarter and check the status of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Snakebite Envenoming, taking steps to correct any challenges observed in its implementation.