Acute Poisonings in the Fez-Meknes Region Reported to the Poison Control and Pharmacovigilance Center of Morocco: A 20-Year Retrospective Study

Abstract

Following our research on intoxication cases in Morocco, we conducted an investigation into intoxications in the Fez-Meknes region, one of the 12 regions in Morocco most affected by this problem. The main aim of this study is to report the characteristics of intoxication cases and their management. We deemed it necessary to carry out this study to identify the specificities of the Fez-Meknes region and subsequently propose specific measures to minimize risks. Our registry data were based on intoxication cases reported between 1999 and 2018 by the Poison and Pharmacovigilance Center of Morocco (PPCM). During the study period, 23,550 cases were collected. The median age of the patients was 20 years, with extremes ranging from 1 day to 98 years. The sex ratio (M/F) was 0.67. Gaseous compounds were the most incriminated products, accounting for 36.6% of cases. Among the 18,192 patients with a known outcome, 242 cases resulted in death, representing a case fatality rate of 1.3%. The findings of this work provide the first contributions to current data on the epidemiology of intoxications in the Fez-Meknes region over the last 20 years. These data show that intoxications are frequent and of moderate severity.