Maharashtra has no Poison Control Centre




By Vikas Vaidya



In the wake of deaths taken place due to spraying of insecticide, the issue of poison control centre has come up. ‘The Hitavada’ came to know the shocking information-- Maharashtra donot have Poison Control Centre. Poison Control Centre is a medical facility that is able to provide immediate, free, and expert treatment advice and assistance over the telephone in case of exposure to poisonous or hazardous substances. This is only one small part of the advantage of this centre. There are several other things that could have helped in preventing deaths that have taken place now, had the centre existed.
One senior expert in Forensic Science told ‘The Hitavada’, “During the tenure of Thomas Benjamin as a Medical Education Secretary, it was proposed that such centre will be set-up in each medical college but that did not work out. The centre is meant to provide every information about poison, including its type. The centre is supposed to possess the information about how that poison gets spread? What are the signs and symptoms if somebody consumes the same, which tests are available to treat? How the diagnosis is to be done? How the treatment should be given? Not only that, any company if produces any pesticide or insecticide it has to furnish every minute detail with the centre. The company has to tell Centre which are the chemicals it will be mixing in the pesticide and what are the health hazards of those mixture.
Poison control centers answer questions about potential poisons in addition to providing treatment management advice about household products, medicines, pesticides, plants, bites and stings, food poisoning, and fumes. More than 72% of poison exposure cases are managed simply by phone, greatly reducing the need for costly emergency room and doctor visits. Poison control centers provide excellent service and savings.
P D Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai had started such centre in 2007. This is the first time that such a facility has been started in a hospital in the entire state of Maharashtra offering free and confidential services.
It receives queries on drug and poisoned cases and provides information on antidotes (including Indian antidotes) and various therapeutic drugs. It is in a position to give drug information on drugs including treatment, monitoring side effect, adverse drug reaction and the lab tests that are recommended using Micromedex Database (for poisons and drugs) which has been accepted all over the world. In the last two years, DPIC successfully responded to 2403 queries / interactions(Refer to the pie-chart below) Most popular insecticide was "Baygon" organophosphates and pyrethroids. In cases related to benzodiazepine, it has been observed that, the drugs consumed by most of the patients include alprazolam and diazepam etc. and miscellaneous drugs include acetaminophen, tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), tetrahydrocannabinoids (THC), phenobarbital, anticonvulsants and opiates etc.
Pointing out the example of Hinduja Hospital, the senior Physician said that such centres can be very much advantageous.

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