According to Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen, Director of the Poison Control Center (Bach Mai Hospital), the rainy and stormy season combined with cool, humid weather is the ideal condition for snakes, insects, etc. to come out of their shelters and look for food. In addition, the natural habitat of animals is currently being disrupted and narrowed, many snakes such as cobras, vipers and harmful animals are forced to live interspersed with residential areas, making it easy for them to come into contact with humans and cause unfortunate accidents.
In the cases that the Center has just received, the patients were bitten in many different circumstances. Most of the people were bitten/stinged when they went out to check their gardens and fields during and after storms, came into contact with tree banks, bushes, piles of garbage or leaves, and had limited visibility. There were cases where venomous snakes entered the house and bit the patient while he was sleeping.
“Normally, poisonous snakes and insects prefer to be active in the dark, at night. In dark conditions, they will be more active and aggressive. During storms, light is limited, many places are forced to cut off electricity to ensure safety, which is also a factor that increases the risk of people being bitten by poisonous snakes and insects,” Dr. Nguyen emphasized.
Venomous snakes are animals with extremely sensitive senses of smell and taste. The tip of the snake's tongue is constantly extended forward to catch small particles in the environment and bring them into the mouth to taste, analyze, determine the source of food and find direction. Therefore, snakes can detect signals of prey from a very far distance. Especially at night, when it rains, snakes often go looking for prey but cannot know exactly which signals are human to avoid. Snakes easily attack when they feel threatened.
The consequences of venomous snake bites are damage to the bitten area such as pain, swelling, necrosis, infection, easily leading to scarring, disability, and even death. Snakes such as banded kraits, king cobras, and cobras can cause paralysis leading to respiratory failure and death if not treated promptly. Vipers cause blood clotting disorders, hemostasis leading to bleeding, etc.
To prevent poisoning from snakes and poisonous animals during the rainy season, doctors recommend that people always pay attention when coming into contact with hidden corners, garbage piles, piles of leaves, bushes, piles of bricks, crevices, caves, etc. where snakes and poisonous animals often reside.
Be careful to use a stick and a lamp to move around and work. Do not use bare hands to reach into the above areas because it is easy to encounter snakes and animals that are there to attack. When working or walking at night, you should wear boots, gloves, and a hat if you are in the forest. People in rural areas and mountainous areas should also close the doors on the first floor, especially near the ground to prevent snakes from entering the house through cracks. In particular, when seeing a snake, people should not actively catch it but should chase it away or, if necessary, beat it to death. There have been cases of snake bites due to actively catching a snake, even when the snake appears to be dead, it can still bite people.
