In India, more than 50,000 snake bite victims die, mostly due to the delay in reaching the hospital or non-availability of anti-snake venom in health facilities.

Dr Omesh Kumar Bharti (corresponding author) from Himachal Pradesh with a team of GVKEMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute), Hyderabad wrote a research paper titled,  'Transporting snake bite victims to appropriate health facility within golden hour through toll free emergency' which has been proved useful and has been referenced in WHO guidelines for snake bite management, 2016, released earlier this week.
 
It suggested carrying anti snake venom in emergency ambulances that can be given to the snake bite victims promptly which could mean the difference between life and death for snake bite victims. This was observed while transporting snake bite victims to hospitals in 108 emergency ambulance service across the country, which is free of cost.

Administering ASV( Anti Snake Venom) in ambulances is a life saving innovation which was practiced first in Himachal Pradesh. Later six other states and Union Territories adopted the same pattern.

The research paper was published in the International Journal of Tropical Disease and Health in 2016. Dr Omesh Kumar Bharti, field epidemiologist with the Himachal government presented the research study at the Geneva Health Forum in Geneva (Switzerland) last year and was a part of national consultations in the Government of India for drafting snake bite management guidelines in 2016.