Zeitschrift für klinische Toxikologie
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A Profile of Snake Bites in Brazil, 2001 to 2012

Rosany Bochner, Judith Tiomny Fiszon and Claudio Machado

Snake bite incidents are on rise in Brazil. The present study updates the current state of knowledge about snake poisoning in Brazil, following a descriptive and retrospective method. The study is based on the information on 329,180 cases registered at the Brazilian Information System on Diseases of Compulsory Declaration (Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação - SINAN), for a period of 12 years starting from 2001 to 2012. The variables selected were spatial (Brazilian state) and temporal (month and year). Factors like poisoning due to genus of snake, time elapsed between the poisoning and the first emergency treatment, the age and the sex of the victim, seriousness and evolution of the poisoning etc are crucial elements that play a role in the recovery process. Poisoning incidents based on the relative risks (RR) in terms of age group for all geographic regions of the country were calculated using the Northern region as an index. The study observed an annual increase in the number of cases with seasonal variations. It exhibited a sizeable difference between the minimum and maximum monthly rates of incidents throughout the study period. As per the study, the highest number of cases occurred in the state of Pará with the greatest number of cases (5,317).The state of Tocantins witnessed the highest incidence (79.4/100,000 inhabitants) and the percentage of affected children and adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age are high in the North region (23.2%; CI95%=22.9-23.4%). Seasonal, regional and local factors must be taken into account when training the teams responsible for treating victims and in the planning of the production and distribution of stocks of antivenom serum.