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Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica

A qualitative study was carried out in south-eastern Costa Rica on the circumstances and consequences of snakebite envenomings. This region has the highest incidence of snakebites and the lowest per capita and per family income in the country. There is a high degree of destitution and an unstable la...

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Autores principales: Arias-Rodríguez, Jazmín, Gutiérrez, José María
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7020421/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31940786
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins12010045
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author Arias-Rodríguez, Jazmín
Gutiérrez, José María
author_facet Arias-Rodríguez, Jazmín
Gutiérrez, José María
author_sort Arias-Rodríguez, Jazmín
collection PubMed
description A qualitative study was carried out in south-eastern Costa Rica on the circumstances and consequences of snakebite envenomings. This region has the highest incidence of snakebites and the lowest per capita and per family income in the country. There is a high degree of destitution and an unstable labor situation in the region. This study was based on semistructured interviews with 15 people who had suffered snakebite envenomings. This sample size was established on the basis of data saturation. Bites occurred mostly while doing agricultural work, either as salaried workers, as occasional workers, or working on their own. Although all people were attended in health centers of the public health system, and received antivenom free of charge, the majority of them did not receive compensation or rehabilitation upon discharge from the health facilities as a result of not being regular salaried workers. People described many difficulties as a consequence of these envenomings, such as permanent physical sequelae, including two amputations, psychological consequences, economic hardships, and difficulties for reinsertion into agricultural work. In spite of the significant advances that Costa Rica has made for reducing the impact of these envenomings, results reveal issues that require urgent attention by government and civil society organizations, to compensate for the physical, psychological, social, and economic consequences of these envenomings.
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spelling pubmed-70204212020-03-09 Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica Arias-Rodríguez, Jazmín Gutiérrez, José María Toxins (Basel) Article A qualitative study was carried out in south-eastern Costa Rica on the circumstances and consequences of snakebite envenomings. This region has the highest incidence of snakebites and the lowest per capita and per family income in the country. There is a high degree of destitution and an unstable labor situation in the region. This study was based on semistructured interviews with 15 people who had suffered snakebite envenomings. This sample size was established on the basis of data saturation. Bites occurred mostly while doing agricultural work, either as salaried workers, as occasional workers, or working on their own. Although all people were attended in health centers of the public health system, and received antivenom free of charge, the majority of them did not receive compensation or rehabilitation upon discharge from the health facilities as a result of not being regular salaried workers. People described many difficulties as a consequence of these envenomings, such as permanent physical sequelae, including two amputations, psychological consequences, economic hardships, and difficulties for reinsertion into agricultural work. In spite of the significant advances that Costa Rica has made for reducing the impact of these envenomings, results reveal issues that require urgent attention by government and civil society organizations, to compensate for the physical, psychological, social, and economic consequences of these envenomings. MDPI 2020-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7020421/ /pubmed/31940786 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins12010045 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Arias-Rodríguez, Jazmín
Gutiérrez, José María
Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica
title Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica
title_full Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica
title_fullStr Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica
title_full_unstemmed Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica
title_short Circumstances and Consequences of Snakebite Envenomings: A Qualitative Study in South-Eastern Costa Rica
title_sort circumstances and consequences of snakebite envenomings: a qualitative study in south-eastern costa rica
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7020421/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31940786
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins12010045
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