Ophidic related accidents notified to the National Program of Control of Zoonosis and National Anti-rabies Center, Paraguay (2015)

Epidemiological and sociodemographic description of snakebite envenoming cases in Paraguay reported between 2015 and 2021

“…Between 2015 and 2021 most accidents were reported in the summer and spring seasons, coinciding with most of the rainy season and increasing at the end of the dry season. This concurs with what has been reported in previous years 12 15 16 and is in line with the natural behaviour of the snake species distributed in the country which are more active in hot and rainy seasons. 4 17 Geographically, a majority of cases were reported in the northwestern and eastern regions of Paraguay, which are the areas with most agricultural activity in the country and agree with what has been formerly observed.…”

“…This could also explain the high levels of admissions shown in this study (93%) that suggest that most patients are admitted, after referral or not, in health facilities with inpatient capacity. This percentage of admission was also observed by Alonso et al, 16 who hypothesised that this could indicate the presence of a high number of complications, whether mild or severe. Still, this study cannot conclude that this number is a reliable estimate of the severity of cases reported during 2015-2021 since it is possible that severe cases are…”