Maharashtra Makes Snakebite a Notifiable Disease

19 August 2026· MaharashtraNational

Maharashtra declared snakebite a notifiable disease on 18 August 2026, making it mandatory for government hospitals, private hospitals, medical colleges and healthcare practitioners to report every suspected, probable or confirmed snakebite case and death. Institutions must now record the date and place of the bite, patient details, envenomation symptoms, and the exact quantity of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) administered. Cases will be reported through the Health Management Information System and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), with the Director of Hospitals providing state-level oversight and district surgeons/health officers acting as nodal officers — creating a state-to-district reporting chain. The decision followed a tragic incident on 9 August 2026 at a state-aided residential school in Japtalai village, Gadchiroli district, where three tribal schoolgirls died and three others were hospitalised after a snakebite; the school's licence was cancelled on 19 August 2026. Maharashtra recorded about 1.29 lakh snakebite cases and 655 deaths between April 2023 and March 2026, and the new notification is meant to build a statewide case-tracking database.

Static GK

Notifiable disease = mandatory reporting to health authorities for surveillance | ASV (Anti-Snake Venom) is the standard treatment for envenomation | IDSP = Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, India's disease-tracking system

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