The ASV shortage is ill-timed because it is now “the season for snake bites”, said Dr. Sundara Bhat of Father Muller Medical College.
However, Dr. Saroja, Resident Medical Superintendent, Wenlock Hospital said: “There is no particular season for snake bites. The number of vials used for a patient depends on the strength of the bite and are given after noting the bleeding and clotting time”.
Chandrashekhar owner, Mediglobe, a wholesale distributor of medicines, said, “It is the season because the rains have stopped and more people are going into the fields for harvesting paddy and areca”.
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Yogesh Siddalingaiah, Senior Resident, Emergency Medicine Department, St. Johns Hospital, Bangalore, said that administering ASV was just one part of the treatment of snake bites. Patients who were given ASVs were likely to develop complications that required them to be admitted in the ICU. He said only some hospitals were facing the shortage of ASV because they possibly got a higher number of patients due to their location in rural areas.