KORONADAL CITY, SOUTH COTABATO — As prolonged El Niño conditions continue to push temperatures higher across the country, health officials are warning that the province could see a corresponding rise in snakebite cases, and they are urging residents to abandon a long-standing, but scientifically unfounded folk remedy known as tandok.
According to Dr. Bryan Non, MD, FPAFP, FPSPCPTM, globally, every one-degree increase in temperature is linked to about a 6 percent increase in snakebite incidents. With the current prolonged El Niño driving up the heat index, the risk is expected to climb further.
“So, what’s the problem here? First, we’ll have grass fires, and snakes will become more active, snakes are displaced by heat and fire and become more active in search of new habitats, encounters with humans are expected to increase, making it critical, health workers say, for communities to know how to respond correctly when a bite occurs, Dr. Non explained.
Dr. Non stressed that the first and most important step after any snakebite is determining whether the snake is venomous or non-venomous, a distinction that is often far from simple, especially for ordinary residents without medical training.
He cited pythons and reticulated snakes (locally called bowa) as a common example.
These snakes have serrated, multi-rowed teeth that can leave dramatic-looking wounds, yet they are not venomous. Because bite victims often survive python or bowa bites without serious harm, many mistakenly credit their recovery to traditional treatment, reinforcing a false belief in its effectiveness.
“This is precisely why practices like tandok , a traditional remedy long used in many Philippine communities to “cure” snakebites, continue to thrive,” Dr. Non said.
He attributed its persistence directly to a lack of health education and limited access to proper medical care.
” They are deprived of access, and that’s why they think all snakes carry venom,” he explained.
He drew a parallel to public misconceptions about rabies, noting that many people wrongly believe dogs are born with rabies, when in fact it is a disease acquired later in life, not an inborn condition.
In the same way, misunderstandings about snake venom fuel continued reliance on tandok, since a bite victim who was never in real danger in the first place will recover regardless of the treatment used, falsely validating the practice.
Dr. Non said the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital (SCPH) is intensifying efforts to bring proper health education campaigns directly to communities across the province, calling this the real solution to the problem, not folk remedies, but accessible, accurate health information.
He also emphasized that identifying the exact species of snake responsible for a bite is essential, since treatment differs significantly depending on the type of snake involved.
For this reason, he is challenging every barangay health worker to learn the basics of snake identification and bite response, as they are typically the first responders in their localities.
Dr. Non further elaborated that the Philippines is home to several types of cobras, including the Philippine cobra, the Samar cobra, and the king cobra, each requiring different treatment approaches.
Currently, the only anti-venom available from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) is formulated specifically for Philippine cobra bites.
This means that even for a Philippine cobra bite, common in the Visayas and Mindanao, the anti-venom’s effectiveness is limited. Against a king cobra bite, the existing anti-venom has virtually no effect at all.
Compounding the problem, Dr. Non noted, is the reality that most bite victims are unable to accurately describe the type of snake that bit them.
This makes it extremely difficult for medical responders to quickly identify and administer the correct anti-venom, since different snake species require different, specific antivenoms to be effective.
With climate change poised to intensify snake activity and bite incidents, health officials say the path forward lies not in traditional remedies like tandok, but in expanding community health education, training barangay health workers, and closing the gap in anti-venom access and species-specific treatment.
