KEY POINTS
- WHO flags bites as major post-flood health concern
- 2022 floods saw similar rise in snakebite cases
- Experts urge anti-venom in disaster medicine essentials list
- Volunteers guide snakebite victims through social media networks
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: When raging floodwaters engulfed Tank district, about 315-kilometres southwest of Peshawar, in August 2025, wreaking havoc on lives and property, another crisis quietly unfolded inside the government-run District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.
Within days, victims of snakebites began arriving in alarming numbers, their swollen limbs and fading pulses telling a story of desperation.
Tank DHQ Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. Israr Khan recalls how his team scrambled to respond, administering 124 life-saving vials of anti-venom to 24 patients in just two weeks. Supplies quickly dwindled, leaving doctors caught between a rock and a hard place.
With shelves running bare, Dr. Khan drafted an urgent letter to the Director General of Health Services in Peshawar, pleading for fresh vials of the scarce medicine. In response to the request, the Tank Deputy Commissioner arranged a consignment of 30 vials of anti-venom, providing a drop in the ocean of need but still some relief to patients.
Bites on the rise
Across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the devastation of the August floods has left behind more than wrecked homes and broken roads. In its wake, an insidious threat has emerged: a surge in snake and dog bite cases in flood-hit communities.
According to the Health Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a total of 222 cases of snake and dog bites were reported during the period starting from August 19 to 31, 2025 in flood battered districts. The World Health Organization (WHO), taking notice of the crisis, mentioned it in its Health Emergency Situation Report released on August 29, 2025.
“Over the past few days after the disastrous floods caused by heavy rain, flash floods and glacial melting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, cases of skin diseases (particularly scabies), snakebite and dog bites are reported at significantly higher level, posing a major public health concern in the province,” reads the WHO report.
The situation mirrors the catastrophic floods of 2022, when 134 cases of snakebite were reported in the end of August in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, prompting the provincial Health Department to issue a public advisory about venomous snakes lurking in the floodwaters.
Overlooked public threat
The rise in the snake and dog bites in flood affected areas has convinced health experts to push for recognition of this danger as a serious public health issue. Too often, it is swept under the carpet during relief operations focused on more visible disasters.
Zoologists and experts on envenomation warn that given the country’s high vulnerability to climate-induced disasters, anti-venom must be incorporated into the official list of essential medicines for disaster management.
Helping snakebite victims
“Snakebite is a routine occurrence being reported on a daily basis, but in flood affected areas a surge is observed due to displacement of the reptile from its burrows because of inundation, increasing the chances of dangerous encounters with humans,” observes Shoaib Saleem, a youngster from Mansehra district and administrator of Reptiles of Wild, a Facebook advice group on snakes.
The group’s main goal is to save human lives, connecting experts, doctors, paramedics, volunteers and snake rescuers. Saleem explains that people keep on contacting them from across Pakistan, especially flood-hit districts, for treatment guidance.
During the 2022 floods, Reptile of Wild was approached by 170 snakebite victims who received critical guidance. For the current disaster, data will be compiled once floodwaters recede.
Floods fuel rabies risk
“Dogs, especially stray, may feel more threatened or stressed by the chaos and unfamiliar surroundings created by a flood. Feeling a lack of safe spaces or encountering people in a way that they perceive as a threat can trigger defensive biting,” explains Muhammad Riaz Khan, a Peshawar-based senior veterinary officer.
Riaz Khan, who leads the Dog Neutering Project of Livestock and Dairy Development Department, confirms that the cases of dog bites are rising in flood-hit areas, mainly because displaced people are living in open spaces. Surgeries have been expedited at divisional headquarters to neuter as many dogs as possible to curb rabies—a disease that remains a matter of life and death.
Scaling up antivenin
“Realising surge in incidents of snakebite in the country during monsoon season especially after the 2022 floods, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has increased preparation of polyvalent snake antivenin from 20,000 vials to 60,000 on annual basis,” shares Amina Najam who serves as In-charge Sera Lab.
Sera Lab of Biological Production Division (BPD) at the National Institute of Health is the only state-of-the-art facility in Pakistan established as per WHO and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines for production of anti-venom serum.
Najam explains that this WHO and FDA-compliant facility is the only one in Pakistan producing anti-venom serum, essential for treating bites from the Indian Cobra, Common Krait, Russell’s Viper, and Saw-scaled Viper.
Snakebite remains a significant yet neglected health issue, affecting around 30,000 persons in Pakistan annually. Since snakebite is categorised as a neglected tropical disease, no province or district-level data is collected, and only estimates are available.
The only cure to snakebite is anti-venom which needs to be available at every nook and corner of the country for ensuring public safety, she stresses.
For public awareness, the Punjab Institute of Public Health has aired an educational video on social media on September 4, 2025 to apprise flood-affected communities about the hidden threat of snakebite. The animated video also informs public about preventive measures and treatment procedure in case of bite by the reptile, while other provinces have yet to take any such initiative.
Climate toll on snakes
“Climate-induced disasters are not only leading to rise in snakebites, but are also causing large-scale killing of the reptile, posing a serious threat to the conservation of this wild species,” observes Mudassir Basri, a conservationist and expert on snake behaviour whose book in English language on snake diversity of Pakistan is in final stages for publication.
Basri and his team observed both increase in snakebites and killing of the reptile after the recent floods in the country. “I have met with a person in flood affected district of Jhang in Punjab who killed 24 snakes in a single day,” he says. Similarly, he goes on to add, in Sialkot district where worst flood was observed, around 10 to 12 Checkered Keelback snakes—which mostly dwell at embankment of canals—were killed in each locality of the city on daily basis.
Basri is also of the opinion that most of the snakebite cases are not reported with Health Department because people opted for traditional way of healing.
Simple survival measures
Mudassar Basri advises people dwelling in flood affected areas to use mosquito net while sleeping. “The Common Krait (Bungarus Caeruleus), a highly venomous and deadly snake which mostly lives in humid environment move to human settlement after inundation of its habitat and bites mostly at night time when people are asleep.”
He urges humanitarian organisations to include mosquito nets in relief packages, calling them a stitch in time that could save countless lives—not only from snakebites but also from Malaria, dengue etc.
He further advises those who had been displaced to establish camps at a significant distance for inundated zones. “This precaution is necessary because snakes reaching dry land are often aggressive and prone to attack when encountered.”
Assurances amid crisis
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department recognises public health burden of snake and dog bite in climate-induced disasters and is actively addressing the medical needs in flood affected regions,” claims Dr. Naeem Awan, Additional Director General at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Services.
As part of our comprehensive disaster management strategy, we have ensured the availability of essential medicines with a specific focus on anti-snake venom and anti-rabies vaccines to tackle potential spread, he adds.
District Health Officer (DHO) Buner, Dr. Muhammad Atiq when contacted informed WE News English that substantial stock of anti-venom and anti-rabies are available at hospital for treatment of patients. He says that like other medicines, availability of these life-saving vaccines is also ensured by health staff.
