SNAKE BITE MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW

Ayurveda has its own way of approach towards the management of visha, which is unique and is parlance with the concepts of current science. Snakebite remains an underestimated cause of accidental death in India. Estimates of snakebite mortality in India vary from approximately 1,300 to 50,000 annually. Considering this, The World Health Organization added snakebite to their list of neglected tropical diseases and designed an exclusive protocol its management. Acharya charaka advocated 24 upakramas to counter the cases of poisoning, which can be categorized into different sets of sub divisions for easy and scientific understanding. Among these, ‘Mantra’ is emphasized as par excellence. In the current attempt, efforts were made to provide certain justifications to these classical remedial measures with special emphasis on the measures that restrict the entry of poison into systemic circulation.