One hundred and thirty Yucatecans were attacked by snakes in 2022

Snake bites are added to the list of 22 pathologies that set a record incidence in 2022, revealed the federal Health Secretary, by establishing that 130 cases of people hospitalized were registered in that year.

The agency established that the problem increased by 52.94 percent with respect to 2021, which totaled 85 people attacked.
From 2012 to date, the minimum incidence occurred in 2016, with 42 cases, while the maximum was in 2019, with 122 ophidian attacks, a figure that was surpassed.

Likewise, it is one of the nine entities with the highest number of “Snake bites”, with 3.45 percent of the national total, since three thousand 767 have been attended in the country.

According to the study by the State Zoonosis Coordinator of the Yucatan Health Secretary (SSY), Daly Gabino Martinez Ortiz, the highest number of snakebite attacks in the State are registered in three periods of the year, the most drought and high heat index, as well as during the burning season and the rainy season.

He also stated that “snake accidents are a multifactorial problem, but this time it is a consequence of the heat since for several weeks the temperature has been above 35 degrees Celsius”.

According to the SSY, a snake is poisonous, and these are some of the snakes that attack people the most, such as the nauyaca and the rattlesnake, which do not have a lethal bite for humans, and they even have an evasive behavior, they flee immediately.

The ophidian accidents are caused by three types of rattlesnakes (Crotalus durissus, Crotalus atrox, and Crotalus scutulatus), as well as the four noses or Nauyaca (Bothrops asper), and the huolpoch (Agkistrodon).

He explained that the greatest number of snake accidents is a consequence of natural causes, such as excessive heat and, therefore, lack of water, which is why these reptiles choose to settle in houses.

“During the period of extreme heat, these reptiles leave their burrows to look for water and food; during the burning season they flee from the fire, and during the rainy season, their nests are flooded and they look for a better place,” he said.

Because they adapt very easily to urban areas, they choose not to return to the wild because “they have a perfect habitat”.

TYT Newsroom