A snake handler suffers ophthalmic envenomation by an Ashe’s spitting cobra.

(A) the offending snake was identified as an Ashe’s spitting cobra (Naja ashei) by a trained herpetologist and the snake handler. (B) the eye of the victim after the ophthalmic envenomation occurred, highlighting the irritation of the eye. (C) the affected eye of the victim the morning after the incident occurred, highlighting the thick mucus build-up. (D) the affected eye at 2 pm on the day after the incident occurred, following Diclogenta treatment.</p

Symptoms and main events with appropriate timelines illustrating the impact and recovery following the ophthalmic envenoming by an Ashes spitting cobra.

Symptoms and main events with appropriate timelines illustrating the impact and recovery following the ophthalmic envenoming by an Ashes spitting cobra.</p

Average treatment costs of different categories of total treatment costs for each snake.

All the values are shown in percentages of total treatment costs for each snake.</p

The breakdown of total treatment costs based on the type of snake species and nature of expenses.

(A) Total treatment costs of patients bitten by different snake species. The total costs for the hospital (B), pharmacy (C), laboratory (D) and investigation (E) were also analysed individually.</p

The relationship between the gender and age of snakebite patients and their total treatment costs.

(A) The relationship between the gender of the patient and their total treatment costs for different snake species. (B) The patient’s age and the total treatment costs for different snakebites.</p

Some of the specialist treatments given to patients who were bitten by different snakes and their total treatment costs.

The values shown are average total treatment costs presented in INR, and the values in brackets represent the number of patients who received those treatments. ICU-intensive care unit, PCV-packed red cell volume and FFP-fresh frozen plasma.</p

Total average treatment costs for snakebite patients who arrived at hospitals at different times following bites.

The total treatment costs are shown in INR, and the number of patients in each category was shown within the brackets.</p

Total average treatment costs for snakebite patients who were bitten at different times of the day/night.

The treatment costs are shown in INR and the number of patients is shown in brackets.</p

Impact of the number of vials of antivenom used, and the length of hospital stay in snakebite treatment costs.

(A) The relationship between the number of antivenom vials received by snakebite patients and their corresponding total treatment costs for the species in question. (B) The length of hospital stay in days for snakebite patients and the corresponding total treatment costs. NA—‘not available’ indicates that for a small number of patients, accurate details are not available. (C) The number of patients arrived at the hospital at different time points following the snakebites.</p

A Sankey plot showing the relationships between treatment costs and various parameters analysed in this study.

RV—Russell’s viper, CO—cobra, KR—common krait, UN—unknown, NV—non-venomous snakes and SSV—saw-scaled viper.</p