Margao: Snake bite cases and consequent deaths must now be reported to health authorities, after the Directorate of Health Services notified the condition under Section 57 of the Goa Public Health Act, 1985. The order which comes into force with immediate effect, has brought snake bite cases within Part II of Chapter VII of the Act, which governs notified diseases.Under Section 59, every medical practitioner, hospital manager, lodging housekeeper, or head of a household who becomes aware of a snake bite case or death must report it “with the least practicable delay” to the local authority, health officer or sanitary inspector. The health officer can also inspect premises under Section 60, while Section 71 empowers govt to invoke special measures if a notified disease is declared prevalent in an area.Sources in the medical field said that the mandatory reporting requirement under Section 59 gives the state, for the first time, a legal basis for a proper snake bite registry, something experts have long demanded.The order comes three months after Dr Ketan Bhatikar, 41, a physiotherapist and Congress functionary who had contested the cancelled Ponda bypoll, died after a snake bite near Anmod Ghat on the Goa-Karnataka border on May 15. With no hospital or a medical facility nearby, and poor mobile connectivity along the forested stretch, his friend drove him to the Dharbandora PHC, where he was declared brought dead. The post-mortem found death was caused by cerebral and pulmonary oedema following neurotoxic envenomation.A GMC study had earlier recorded 1,663 snake bite cases and 30 deaths in Goa between 2020 and 2024, with the state averaging 500 to 600 cases annually — nearly two bites a day in the monsoon. Fatalities at GMC ranged between 2 and 7 a year, peaking in 2024.
