A few days back a woman in Nigeria died after a huge venomous snake bit her as she sat on the toilet. The woman worked for the Nigerian Air Force and her name was Lance Corporal Ogah Bercy. After the snake bit her, she was rushed to hospital but died on arrival.
The snake (a huge cobra) is believed to have been in the toilet bowl. A snake handler was called to the location in Abuja to remove the snake. Videos posted on social media shows the man taking a large snake from the toilet.
Somuyiwa David, an animal scientist and technical commercial executive with Animal Care Services consult, posted an email that was shared with him on Facebook. It said the attack took place at Ogah Bercy's apartment early on November 19. She did not check the toilet bowl before sitting down and immediately she was bitten.
The specie of cobra responsible was not totally clear. From the video, it appears to be a black-necked spitting cobra. This species is one of the most deadly in Nigeria. It grows to between 4 and 7 feet in length.
In Nigeria, only three species of cobra is present. They are
• The Mali cobra
• The Egyptian cobra &
• The black-necked spitting cobra.
Snake bites are recognized via the World Health Organization as a overlooked tropical sickness. An envisioned five.4 million human beings are bitten each yr, with between eighty one,000 and 138,000 useless. Those that managed to continue to exist require amputations or are left with everlasting disabilities due to bites. In Africa, there are among 435,000 and 580,000 snake bites that want medical remedy yearly.
Snake bites are a big public fitness trouble in Nigeria. In September, on International Snakebite Awareness Day, Health Minister Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora said that up to twenty,000 people in Nigeria are bitten every year, main to round 2,000 deaths and a in addition 2,000 amputations.
Snakes are known to hide in toilets. In 2020, a woman in Thailand was bitten by a python when she sat down on a toilet. In Australia in 2019, a woman testified of how she jumped from the toilet after being bitten by a carpet python.
More recently, a man on holiday in South Africa was bitten on his penis by a snouted cobra, suffering envenomation of the genitals.
Many people don't believe snakes can get into the toilet bowls.Theh have been asking online trying to understand how the snake got to the ladie's toilet.
To understand how snakes can enter through pipes and connecting pits, one can first look at the structure of the toilet bowl and how it connects to outside of the building.
A toilet bowl usually has three openings.
The first and biggest opening is the rim or top of the bowl; it is the part through which wastes from humans (urine and poo) are released in the toilet bowl. Snakes can get into the toilet bowl if they climb over the rim from the toilet floor below, or from an open or broken window above. They may also fall into it from a height above the rim for example an open or broken ceiling, or the top of lockers and stacks around.
The second one is a small opening located just behind and very close to the top of the toilet bowl. This hole carries water that helps in flushing the toilet bowl from the toilet tank above. Snakes can only get into this hole through the tank but this only happens if the cover of the tank is broken, not properly closed or has been deliberately removed.
The third and last opening is a 100mm (four inches) wide round opening on the back of the toilet, it opens directly into the big pipes that connect the building to the underground pits and tanks outside the building.
Most concealed reptiles found in the toilet bowl usually get into the toilet bowl using this last opening.
How?
The pipe links the bathroom to an inspection chamber, a field-like structure just out of doors the residence, usually very near the wall of the house, which in turn has pipes that hyperlink to the septic tank (soak-away pit) and a vent pipe, that allows foul air to escape from the chamber and the septic tank/soak-away pit.
A snake can get into an opening at the connecting pipes, the inspection chamber, septic tank, soak-away pit (like a huge crack on the quilt slab) and conveniently make its manner into the pipe that hyperlinks the bathroom bowl to those systems, then up, into the residence.
The vent pipe is usually the weakest point when it is not properly covered or its cover fall off and is left unattended
Thus, snakes can get into ones toilets
*How can one stay safe?
•Do not visit the rest room with out a source of mild (Avoid the use of the toilet in darkness) .
•Always check out the bathroom bowl and its surroundings earlier than use.
•If you live in nations with lots of snakes remember to do this regularly>
•Do now not use the bathroom floor as packing space. Keep it tidy such that it is easy to look right now whether it is smooth and clean, or occupied by overseas bodies.
•Inspect vent pipes, soak-away pits and inspection chambers, ceilings, roofs, walls, windows periodically for holes, breaks and loosed coverings. Repair this as soon as they are noticed.
•Hire the right humans to construct, preserve or smooth your own home or refuge.
•Allow desirable and clear space among your building and surrounding structures which includes fences and timber from which snakes can get into homes
•Treat the spaces above the ceiling and beneath the constructing with snake repellents and other fumigants periodically.
•Take care of your private home so one can cope with you.
If you know you often ease yourself in bushes due to the location of your school or work or somewhere please limit it. Let's all just try to stay safe and healthy.
