A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ACUTE POISONING IN NEPAL AT TERTIARY AND SECONDARY LEVEL HOSPITALS

Abstract

A study was done at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) and Bharatpur District Hospital (BDH) to find out the differences among the acute poisoning cases in those hospitals during 2000-2002. The study aimed to compare the acute poisoning cases in terms of some variables. It was a comparative study of all the acute poisoning cases admitted in the internal medicine department of TUTH and BDH during 2000-2002. The numbers of acute poisoning cases were found to be more at BDH than at TUTH during the same period. Though the majority of the cases were female in both the hospitals, percentages of male poisoning cases were found to be more at BDH. The 16-25 age group was the predominantly affected group at TUTH, while it was below 15 age group at BDH. Pesticide poisoning cases were the commonest poisoning cases at TUTH whereas the numbers of rodenticides poisoning cases were predominant at BDH. The use of drugs is significantly higher at TUTH. Deaths due to poisoning in TUTH were more than at BDH during the same period. The maximum number of poisoning cases occurred during the months of Bhadra- Mangsir. Owing to the higher rate of use of drugs as poison, the sale of drugs without prescriptions should be discouraged. Similarly the public should be well sensitized about the childhood poisoning. Key Words: Drugs, recovery, pesticides, rodenticides.