Nabarangpur: A nine-month-old baby and his elder sister died of snakebite after their parents took them to a black magician who failed to cure them in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district, an official said Tuesday.
The incident took place at Rajpur village under Umerkote police station area Monday night while they were sleeping at their home along with other family members.
The family members took them to a black magician locally called “gunia”, a man who is believed to extract venom from the body, for treatment at midnight instead of going to a hospital. The superstition delayed proper medical treatment.
“We took the children to a gunia. However, as their condition worsened, we brought them to the hospital where doctors declared them dead,” said Krusha Harijan, father of the deceased siblings.
The snake bit 9-month-old Rituraj Harijan and his sister Amita Harijan (11) around 11 pm, and they were taken to the black magician. After his rituals, lasting for about three hours, failed to revive them, the parents brought the children to the hospital at 4 am, and they were dead by then.
“The children were bitten by a highly venomous snake. They should have been given anti-venom within two hours, which is the golden period. But the family took them to a local healer and delayed in bringing the children to the hospital,” said Nabarangpur Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Santosh Kumar Panda.
The CDMO appealed to the people to bring the patient immediately to a hospital instead of taking the help of black magicians.
“We have launched a campaign in villages to ward off such superstitions, but the people are yet to get fully aware,” Panda said.
An official at the Special Relief Commissioner’s office said that the state reports around 3,000 snakebite cases annually, and 40 per cent of them die as they were not brought to a hospital during the golden period.
“The death rate is high because of delayed access to healthcare facilities, the reliance on traditional remedies, and a lack of trained healthcare professionals at the grassroots level,” he said.
