An average of six persons are bitten daily by snakes in Kaltungo, in Gombe State, the commissioner for Health, Dr. Mohammed Umar, has said.
Kaltungo, referred to as the home of snakes, is one of the towns within the snake belt in the nothern part of Nigeria.
Umar told newsmen Friday that no fewer than six snake-bite victims were admitted at the Kaltungo General Hospital in the past three months, apart from cases that might not have been reported.
The commissioner, who said he had no figure of those who had been bitten to death, explained that the period from May to August was the peak period for snakes.
He explained that a delicacy of the snakes, derived from a local species of tree called 'Giginya´, was in abundance at this period.
"Unfornately, the Carpet Viper, a specie of the rampaging snakes, is not easy to eradicate as they reproduce in hundreds during their breeding season," Umah noted.
He said government had intensified efforts at creating awareness on self protection strategies and also ensuring the availability of drugs at all times.
According to him, one of the precautionary measures being encouraged is the wearing of thick rain boots and hand gloves while working in the farm or while rearing animals.
Umar said it was in recognition of the enormity of the problem being posed by snakes in the area that the federal government designed the Kaltungo General Hospital as a National Centre for Snake bites Research.
