A nine-year old girl in northern NSW recently died after sustaining a venomous snake bite.  She was picking corn in the backyard of her family home in Uralla, south of Armidale, when bitten by what doctors say was a brown snake. It is understood she suffered a heart attack as her parents called for emergency help. Four ambulance paramedics and a first response firefighting team from Uralla fought for 30 minutes to revive her. She was then taken to Armidale Hospital, about 20 kilometers away, where she later died.

It is the second snake bite death in NSW this year. In January a boy, 16, died after being bitten by an eastern brown at Whalan, in Sydney’s west, and in February, a western Sydney man survived a brown snake bit after noticing two puncture wounds that were bleeding in his lower leg.

There are about 3,000 snakes bits a year in Australia. Snake sightings have become increasingly common as the reptiles come closer to houses to look for water because of the drought.

A recent study has found that two out of three children bitten by snakes get the wrong treatment, or none at all. Western Australian researchers found that the number of children getting the correct on-the-spot care for bites has fallen 10 per cent in the past decade.

Dr Noel Eatough, a registrar who reviewed the medical records of children admitted to Perth's Princess Margaret Hospital between 1994 and 2004, investigated the data.

Dr Eatough found only 33 per cent of the 151 children had had the best treatment, a pressure immobilisation bandage wrapped around the limb with the right pressure to limit the spread of venom. The remaining 67 per cent had mostly had no first aid or the bandage had been wrapped too tightly, meaning it had to be released after a short time.

A comparison with an earlier study from 1984 to 1993 at the same hospital found that use of the effective bandaging style had slipped by between five and 10 per cent. Dr Eatough said he was disappointed parents did not seem to be aware of the bandaging, developed by renowned scientist Dr Struan Sutherland in the 1970s.

"It is an Australian invention ... now used around the world," he said. "It saves lives, so it is something all parents should be aware of."

His colleague Dr Meredith Borland said the results indicated poor knowledge nationwide of how best to treat bites, according to News.com."Clearly this is something we have to promote to the public, especially when we do have a lot of snakes," Dr Borland said.

The statistics, were presented at the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Conference in Sydney during November, and show that toddlers and boys aged 10 to 14 years are most commonly bitten. Almost three quarters were bitten on the leg or foot.

Of the 53 most clearly bitten, 18 were definitely poisoned - 13 by brown snakes, three by tiger snakes, one by a black snake, and one by a sea snake.

The Australian Venom Research Unit website offers a consise fact sheet and on-line video clip demonstrating the Pressure-Immobilisation Technique (PIT).

Wilderness Medicine Insitute of NOLS Australia also provide cirruculum updates including snake bite worth updating yourself with.