Overview

• Govind Kumar remains stable under continuous observation and preventive medication since the July 26 incident.
• He has shown no severe symptoms during 48 hours of monitoring and doctors have kept antivenom on standby in case neurotoxic signs emerge.
• The one-year-old instinctively bit a venomous cobra to death after it coiled around his hands at his home in Bettiah near the Indo-Nepal border.
• He was first treated at a local primary health centre before being referred to GMCH Bettiah, highlighting the efficiency of the rural healthcare referral system.
• The case underscores India’s broader snakebite crisis, which claimed over a million lives from 2000 to 2019 and often intensifies during the monsoon season.