ABSTRACT:The present work aims to find the epidemiological profile of snakebites in Morocco through a retrospective study of 1,423 snakebite cases that occurred between 1992 and 2007. Data were obtained from medical charts of envenomation at the Poison Control and Pharmacovigilance Center of Morocco. Results revealed that 86% of the snakebites had occurred in rural areas and that males were significantly more affected than females at a sex ratio of 23:20. Furthermore, 35% of the bites happened during the summer, with a peak of 215 cases in June (15.1%). We also discovered that 67.3% of the patients were bitten during the day. The age group that comprised the most agriculturally active persons, from 20 to 44 years old, was the most affected by snakebites (551 cases). In terms of evolution, patients who were at least 60 years of age (8.89%) as well as those who were less than 10 years old (7.50%) presented higher mortality. According to clinical severity grades, the data revealed a 70% predominance of grade 2 cases (430). Deaths had occurred only in patients with grades 3 and 4. Furthermore, grade 4 patients presented 100% mortality whereas grade 3 registered 10.7%. The distribution of snakebites according to administrative regions in Morocco showed a predominance of the Souss-Massa-Daraa region both in terms of frequency (32%) and mortality (72.1%). Our study clearly displayed the severity and extent of the snakebite problem in the country, thus revealing that public health authorities should give more attention to this serious situation.

ABSTRACT:The present study aims to elucidate the risk factors involved in deaths caused by scorpion envenomation. A retrospective study was carried out in the province of Kelâa des Sraghna from 2003 to 2004. The hospital charts of scorpion envenomation cases treated in the Essalama Hospital in Kelâa des Sraghna were exhaustively analyzed. Our study contains 31 cases of death among 470 hospitalization cases. Most stings had occurred during the hot period peaking in July and August (54.6%). Moreover, the scorpion stings occurred at night in 60.1% of the cases, between 6:00 pm and 6:00 am. In addition, all age groups were affected by envenomation, with a higher frequency in children aged less than 15 years (68.3%). The envenomation rate (class II + class III) was 70.9%. The statistical analysis of the data shows that being less than 15 years old, having been stung during the night and belonging to class III are risk factors that aggravate vital prognosis of hospitalized patients. Furthermore, clinical severity factors, elicited by relative risk analysis, are cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological vital distresses, with relative risks of 14.84, 11.92 and 48.33, respectively. The results of our study clearly displayed the severity and extent of the scorpion envenomation problem. Thus, great attention must be paid to this region of Morocco by the national health authorities.

The current study aimed to determine the epidemiological profile of foodborne diseases associated with flesh foods during 2010-2016 in Morocco. A retrospective study of foodborne diseases caused by flesh foods recorded by the Moroccan anti-poison and pharmacovigilance center during 2010-2016. During this period, 2963 foodborne diseases related to flesh foods were declared to the center, in which 24.83% were registered in 2015, and 20.75% in 2013. Diseases occurred mostly in urban areas (67.06%). The major affected group's ages were adults (33.81%) and children (14.44%). The average patient's age was 25.09 ± 15.37 years. Male were the most vulnerable to infection (54.80%) with a sex ratio (male / female) of 1.72. The most incriminate flesh foods were respectively chicken (47.35%), aquatic products (30.94%) and red meat (16.57%). The high incidence rate was related to chicken skewers (3.55 per 100000 people), while the high fatality rate was associated with giblets (3.33%). Diseases due to the restauration outside home accounted for 58.15%. The majority of cases were collective (84.27%) and occurred significantly in spring (18.49%) and summer (14.51%). clinical symptoms were present in 67.19 % of cases, mostly moderate (81.77%) with four death cases corresponding to fatal condition. The high incidence rates were recorded in the regions of Sahara. Foodborne diseases are spreading progressively in Morocco, especially in summer and hot climates. The majority of these diseases are due to the consumption of contaminated flesh foods. Therefore, the responsible of food safety in Morocco must ensure the quality control of these foodstuffs.

No abstract

The aim of this study is to estimate the completeness of drug poisoning surveillance in the region of Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima in Morocco. The study deals with cases of drug poisoning identified by the Moroccan Anti Poison Control Center (MPCC) and the cases collected by the registers of the provincial hospitals of the studied region between 2014 and 2016 period. The completeness of the surveillance was studied by the capture-recapture method. During the study period, 835 cases of drug poisoning were identified by the MPCC and 892 cases from the registers of hospitals in the region. The number of duplicates was 78. The capture-recapture method made it possible to estimate the total number of cases at 9 549 (95% CI: 8,199-10,900). The completeness of surveillance is estimated at 8.74% from MPCC and 9.34% from hospital registers in the region. The capture-recapture method provided limited completeness of monitoring for drug poisoning in the study area. Improved awareness of doctors about the declaration is necessary to strengthen the system of surveillance of poisoning in Morocco. RésuméLa présente étude vise à estimer l'exhaustivité de la surveillancedes intoxications médicamenteuses survenues dans la région de Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima au Maroc. L'étude porte sur les cas d'intoxications médicamenteusesrecensés par le Centre Anti Poison et de Pharmacovigilance du Maroc (CAPM) et les cas collectés par les registres des hôpitaux provinciaux de la région étudiée durant la période 2014-2016. L'exhaustivitéde la surveillance a été étudiée par la méthode capturerecapture. Pendant la période d'étude, 835 cas d'intoxications par médicaments ont été recensés par le CAPM et 892 cas à partir des registres des hôpitaux de la région. Le nombre de doublons était de 78. La méthode capture-recapture a permis d'estimer le nombre total de cas à 9 549 (IC à 95%: 8 199-10 900). Le taux d'exhaustivité de la surveillance est estimé à 8,74% à partir des données du CAPM et à 9,34% à partir des registres des hôpitaux de la région. La méthode capture-recapture a donné une exhaustivité limitée de la surveillance des intoxications médicamenteuses dans la région étudiée. Une meilleure sensibilisation des médecins à la déclaration s'avère nécessaire afin de renforcer le système de surveillance des intoxications au Maroc.

No abstract

No abstract

This works investigates the reliability of scorpion stings treatment adopted by the Moroccan Poison Control and Pharmacovigilance Center and its application at the provincial level hospital in Kelaa Des Sraghna. The study was based on a sample of 984 cases reviewed from the hospitalization records from this establishment. The results of the distribution of patients according to the level of severity of the cases showed that the Class II category represents 67.45% (n=518 cases) and Class III represents 8.33% (n=64 cases). Although patients ranked in Class I should not be hospitalized, the study found that 24.22% of the cases recorded during the study period belong to this category of patients. Among the 186 cases registered in Class I, 8.06% (n=15) displayed clinical signs; this implies a problem in the classification of these patients. However, the study of the correlation between the classification of those admitted and their respective clinical signs and symptoms revealed that those clinical indicators corresponded well to the categories in which patients were placed. Moreover, the study showed that the evolution of patients depends significantly on the distress signals (Class III) and on some signs indicated severity: priapism, sweating and vomiting (Class II).