Study of Fatal Poisoning in a District Hospital of West Bengal

Abstract

Poisoning is an emerging problem worldwide. According to WHO, 3 million acute poisoning cases with 2,20,000 deaths occur annually. Of these, 90% of fatal poisoning occurs in developing countries mainly among agricultural workers. It is estimated that more than 50,000 people die every year from toxic exposure in India. OBJECTIVES 1. To study the current trend of poisoning in a District of West Bengal. 2. To know the burden of pesticide poisoning in society. MATERIAL AND METHODSA hospital based retrospective cross sectional study was conducted in a district hospital of West Bengal. Ethical clearance was taken from Ethics Committee. All the registered cases of poisoning in a district hospital during the study period were included in the study. Data was collected from medico-legal register and respective case sheets using pre-structured and validated questionnaire containing demographic and medico-legal aspects of poisoning for the period of 2 years (March 2014-March 2016). Data was analysed using the SPSS version 16 software. Descriptive statistics were reported as mean (SD) for continuous variables and frequency (percentage) for categorical variables. RESULTTotal 7280 patients reported to casualty department over two years; 5.21% were reported to be the poisoning cases. Out of total 380 poisoning cases, 84 (22.10%) patients died. Maximum poisoning cases were from rural area falling mainly in the age group of 21-30 and above 50 years. Organ phosphorus poisoning was noted in 46.42% of reported cases. CONCLUSIONSBased on the study findings, we could understand the trend of poisoning in the study area. It is very important to identify these changing trends in the study area, as it will be helpful for policy makers to equip health care institutions which can lead to better management of cases and reduction in the mortality related to poisoning.