Poisoning; A Grave Public Health Concern

Globally, due to various incidences of intentional and unintentional poisoning, more than half a million people experience death and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) accounts for 84% of such cases. The clinical presentation of such cases varies from each other based upon age group, reason of poisoning, geographic region, substances involved and economic development of the country. This study was designed to estimate the number of poisoning cases in central district of Sindh province. The study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital (TCH) of Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, Pakistan, between July to December 2019. Subjects were the poisoned patients admitted in the TCH. Study instrument was designed based on the American Association of Poison Control Centers surveys. During the study period, total 263 poisoning cases were presented. Analysis of the study results showed that, the cases of poisoning are more in single (56.3%) males (58.9%) in the age group of 16-30 years (48.7%) having uneducated (55.1%) and jobless (54%) background. Suicide (intentional poisoning) was common reason (36.5%) of poisoning and pesticides (42.6%) were the most widely used substances for poisoning. About (17.5%) of such cases were admitted in Intensive Care Units during the study period and 5.3% of such cases did not survive through such condition. Through this study it was found that, by improving the regulatory controls for hazardous chemicals, establishment of poison control centers, minimization of reporting time and exposure of such substances would be beneficial for control of such cases.