Man in ICU Paphos after snake bite

A 55-year-old man was in intensive care at Paphos General Hospital on Sunday after being bitten by a snake in his village.

The man was bitten while out in his field and was taken to the hospital emergency room where doctors admitted him to intensive care as a precaution.

There are nine recognised species of snake in Cyprus. While most are harmless, three are venomous, although one doesn’t cause a poisonous bite to humans, due to the position of its fangs.

The blunt-nosed viper is the most dangerous and a snake bite requires immediate medical attention.

The bite inflicted by a blunt nosed viper is highly poisonous but they will only attack in self defence. If a viper is disturbed, it will hiss loudly as a warning before striking.

This viper is a large, long snake and can vary in colour. It’s often found close to water and areas which provide shade such as rocks, shrubs. When it does strike, its fangs are embedded into the victim and a large amount of venom is pumped into the wound.

The Montpellier snake is also venomous but its bite is not life-threatening. The Cat Snake’s bite is painful, but not dangerous.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.