Dr. Dileep Punde is an expert on snakebite management and has been actively working in treatment of snakebite patients in rural Maharastra. Till date he has treated more than 4000 (four thousand) bite cases.

Dr. Dilip Punde strongly  recommends purification  and strict quality control of the ASV available in India.He has shared his view in the light of a news that said "commercial antivenom used in India is largely ineffective"  according to IISc study.

ASV in India is effective in many states but West Bengal doctors are facing many problems due to inefficacy of ASV.

Dr. Punde states his expert observations:

1. Dose required of ASV is more in today's scenario; upto 40 vials in viper bite; previously it was 30 vials at the maximum.This definitely raises doubts about potency of ASV.
2. Incidence of ASV reactions is increasing day by day even upto 50%. This raises doubts about quality control and purification of ASV. *Many doctors in India are not treating snake bite patients due to the fear of ASV reactions.
3. Life of ASV is 150 years and yet no another antidote or chemical antidote is available; nothing is even in the pipeline.
4. Universal or national antidote for snake bite is not possible in our country due to biodiversity and change in antigenicity of snake venom.
5. Venom detection kit is not available in India, hence difficult to decide exact dose of  ASV. Many doctors use different protocols.

Dr Punde states, "In the last 32 years we have not lost any patient due to ASV reactions but faced many severe reactions, hence treating venomous snake bite patient is a stressful job at the periphery and even at higher centre." We, the members of Toxicological Society of India, have raised the issue of quality control of ASV to the Health Minister of India. We are demanding National Snake Bite Programme which will include all things related to Snake Bite.

Snake Bite Management has many obstacles but my appeal to all esteem Physicians is to treat poor victims of snake Bite because India looses *50000* (fifty thousand) lives per year due to snake bite.

Let us be a Voice of Voiceless

-Dr Dilip Punde