These snakes are huge. Black mambas can grow up to 14 feet long, and the longest king cobra ever recorded was 19 feet long.
Puff adders, by contrast, are petite, less than 6 inches short and 6 feet long, but are very thick. They have long, retractable fangs that can deliver venom into their muscles.
Their venom destroys blood clotting factors, causing victims to bleed from the brain, eyes, and mouth and die a slow, gruesome death.
Identifying the attacker helps customize treatment. However, many people have never seen a snake that bites them, or even if they have, they are unable to identify it. To the untrained eye, it may seem indistinguishable between venomous and harmless snakes.
No matter what you name it, it's not easy. Green mambas are green, while black mambas are pale gray to dark brown. It is so called because the inside of its mouth is black. They are best known for their coffin-shaped heads and creepy smiles.
Some scientists are building AI models to identify snakes, and anyone with a smartphone could be able to identify them.
Approximately one-third of snake bites occur in children. Although it occurs less frequently among pregnant women, the consequences can be devastating, including spontaneous abortion, placental rupture, premature detachment, fetal malformations, and death of both mother and fetus.
Victims are often farmers. The loss of a breadwinner takes a toll on a family.
Ruth Mnube's husband worked as a driver in Nairobi and returned to the family farm every other week. On a Saturday in April 2020, the 42-year-old was walking through bushes on his way home from a night out when he was bitten.
Two hospitals vying to treat coronavirus patients turned him away. By the time he died two days later, his body had swollen to twice its size, a characteristic of a puff adder bite, said his sister Esther Ngiu.
Mnube currently mainly grows corn and cowpeas for food and sells green gram. Although Njiu has five children of her own, she does her best to help raise her brother's four children.
Money was tight, but women still paid to strengthen their homes. “I don't want anyone to get bitten by a snake again,” Njiu said.
