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LAHORE: The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) has completed an anti-venom production project to treat snake-bite victims in the country.
Head of the project, Dr.Ziaullah Mughul, told APP here Sunday that every year around thousands of people die in Pakistan from snake-bite. Only five to six per cent anti-venom vaccine is prepared by the National Institute of Health (NIH) against required 150,000 vaccines per annum and that too is not easily available in the market.
Therefore, most patients die due to the unavailability of anti-venom vaccine in the country putting the total number to 50,000 deaths annually, he added.
Around 90 per cent snake-bite deaths can be prevented if anti-venom vaccine is produced at local level, Dr. Ziaullah added.
During the last year's flood, anti-venom vaccine had to import from India.
Dr. Ziaullah was of his view that the locally prepared anti-venom would be effective for four kinds of snake-bite and it would be available at Rs 400 while anti-venom vaccine imported from India cost Rs 1,900 and it was effective for only one kind of snake. Snake-bite victims need four doses for complete treatment, he added.
For commercialization of the project, Rs 400 million is needed, however, its commercialization may take three or four months and its export can earn billions of rupees, he maintained.
The USA and Australia are earning a big amount of money through the export of anti-venom drugs, he added.
