Rodrigo Chaturaka, Kirushanthan Selvanayagam, Gnanathasan Ariaranee
Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, 25, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka.
Jaffna Teaching Hospital, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
J Occup Med Toxicol. 2017 Mar 27;12:10. doi: 10.1186/s12995-017-0156-7. eCollection 2017.
Neurotoxic envenoming following the bites of kraits ( spp.) is a common cause of death in the dry zone of Sri Lanka and elsewhere in South Asia. Most of these bites occur at night and are inflicted on people sleeping on the ground. Thus we hypothesized that the simple measure of sleeping above ground would help to reduce the number of observed krait bites.
This study was conducted in two villages of the Kilinochchi district of Sri Lanka which had reported a high number of krait bites in the two years preceding the study. Most of the residents in these two villages slept on the ground. Residents in one area were given beds free of charge, using funds available from the study. Both villages received health education on the prevention of krait bites.
Forty five beds were distributed to 45 families in one village. This enabled 115 individuals to sleep above ground level. 6 monthly follow up visits were conducted ensuring the proper utilization of beds. Follow up was continued for 30 months (September 2013-March 2016); during this time period no krait bites were reported in either area.
We observed a dramatic decline of krait bites in both villages. Better awareness with effective health education and clearing of vegetation could have led to the decline in the number of krait bites in both villages.
金环蛇（属）咬伤后的神经毒性中毒是斯里兰卡干旱地区及南亚其他地区常见的死亡原因。这些咬伤大多发生在夜间，受害者多为睡在地上的人。因此，我们推测睡在地面以上这一简单措施有助于减少观察到的金环蛇咬伤数量。
本研究在斯里兰卡基利诺奇区的两个村庄进行，这两个村庄在研究前两年报告了大量金环蛇咬伤事件。这两个村庄的大多数居民睡在地上。利用研究资金，为其中一个地区的居民免费提供了床铺。两个村庄都接受了预防金环蛇咬伤的健康教育。
在一个村庄向45个家庭分发了45张床。这使得115人能够睡在地面以上。进行了6次每月一次的随访，以确保床铺得到妥善使用。随访持续了30个月（2013年9月至2016年3月）；在此期间，两个地区均未报告金环蛇咬伤事件。
我们观察到两个村庄的金环蛇咬伤事件显著减少。更好的意识、有效的健康教育以及清除植被可能导致了两个村庄金环蛇咬伤数量的下降。
