**9. Prevention**

Snake bites are considered occupational accidents involving farmers, workers in plantations, sheepherders and fishermen (Alirol, Sharma, Bawaskar, Kuch, & François Chappuis, 2010). The Statistical Yearbook of the Méxican Ministry of Health (SSA) in the chapter on accidents and poisoning in the section of hospital morbidity does not appear to report cases of snakebites in the years 1995 to 2000. Clearly there is an underreporting of such injuries. This assertion is based on the IMSS 1994-1998 reported 2 620 cases with 23 deaths (0.8%). (Madrazo-Navarro M, Zarate-Aguilar A, 1998). Although in normal conditions victims are adults, we must take into account that children perform these activities in many third world countries. In performing these activities, people should wear appropriate clothing (heavy pants, rubber boots) and it could be helpful to limit activities that involve staying in areas with tall grass to hours with sunlight. Most of the times this is impossible, and in these cases is important to educate the population about the appropriate pre-hospital management in case of a snake bite. They should know the fastest routes to reach the nearest hospital and take into account that children engaged in these activities are at greater risk of bites by snakes and that the severity of these lesions is greater, even if they are exposed to the same amount of venom as an adult.

Open rooms with no windows or doors and some habits, such as sleeping on the ground exposes people to night snake attack (Alirol et al., 2010) and these practices must be eradicated whenever it is possible. Since the snake bites are more common in the legs, feet, to be more precise, the mere fact of having children wear shoes dramatically reduces the incidence of such bites, as well as keeping children away from sites where snakes may hide, especially in the evenings and early hours of the morning in summer and autumn seasons. (Hon, Kwok, & Leung, 2004)

There is very vague knowledge about the procedures to be followed when someone is attacked by a snake, below we present some guidelines that contrary to popular belief and misinformation should not be performed:

