Résumé
Background: Snake bite is a neglected public health problem in India. Very few community based epidemiological studies in India have been published so far on this issue. Most of the studies were carried out on hospital data. Previous community-based survey in the state revealed that only 22% snake bite victims attended hospitals. Objectives: The objective of the present study is to fi nd out the epidemiological profi le of snake bite in eight blocks of the South 24-Paraganas district of West Bengal and to explore the under reporting of snake bite deaths in health facilities in that area during the study period. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of snake bite data was carried out from a community-based epidemiological survey on 1.9 million populations. This survey was done door-to-door from January 2009 to October 2010 to get epidemiological profi le of snake bite of the previous 2 years. The data of direct survey was compared with the offi cial report of the same area to evaluate the hospital-based data with focus on underreporting of snakebite deaths. Results: A total number of snake bite cases as found in the survey in the study area was 4871. There was a huge gap between the two data (direct survey and offi cial data). Only 7.23% snake bite deaths were offi cially reported. Only 22.19% of the snake bite victims attended the hospitals. Nearly 65.7% of the snake bite deaths were due to common krait bite, most of them occurring in the months of June to September. Conclusions: Offi cial reporting system is still having a huge defi ciency in India. Snake bite needs to get more attention from the health authority.
Résumé
A retrospective study of 8772 children's records at the department of ophthalmology, North Bengal Medical College, Sushrutanagar, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India was conducted to collect the data on visual loss relating age, gender, degree and aetiology with an object of delineation of the profile of visual loss in children of particular area encircling that referral centre. Out of 8772 children, 126 children were detected to be suffering from visual loss. Of these 126 children, 88(69.84%) were males, 38(30.16%) were females, 75 children (59.52%) had low vision, 51(40.48%) had blindness. The causes of visual loss were cataract in 42 cases (33.33%), corneal pathology in 30(23.80%), high refractive error in 15(11.90%), glaucoma in 14(11.11%), retinal disease in 12(9.52%), global anomalies in 10 (7.94%) and lesion in the higher visual pathway in 3 cases (2.38%). Information obtained from the study possesses a definite role in understanding the background of visual loss in children of a particular area and planning the strategy to control childhood blindness by identification of preventable and treatable causes of blindness.