KARACHI, April 20: The number of patients reporting at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for poisoning emergency treatment has trebled in the last five years, said a doctor at the annual symposium of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Friday.

Prof Jamal Ara, the head of the National Poison Control Centre (NPCC) at the JPMC, said the total number of patients, including snakebite cases, reported in 2007 was 1,158; 1,257 in 2008; 1,217 in 2009; 2,789 in 2010 and 3,551 cases were reported in 2011.

Prof Ara is also the author of Increasing poisoning trend in Pakistan, a book launched during the event, where noted health-care expert Prof S. M. Rab was the chief guest.

Explaining the causes of poisoning, she said that mainly it was due to chemicals and drugs, animal bite, plants, heavy metals, etc.

A toll free telephone number (0800-77767) had been introduced for the public and general practitioners all over the country for poison information and guidance, she added.

In her book, which is first of its kind in the country, she writes: “It seems there is senseless misunderstanding in the society that haunts these people and leads them to take such steps. There is something terribly wrong happening in the society which we have failed to identify and rectify”.

She defined the poisoning as a chemical substance harmful not only to human as well as animal health, but also to the environment. “It could be simply from a small herb to chemically made substances which are present around us without our knowledge and adversely affecting our health continuously.”

Complaining about a lack of awareness of harmful chemical substances, Prof Ara called for proper labeling of products, legislation, awareness campaigns, which could give knowledge to the common people regarding their harmful effects and the safety precautions that should be taken.

“The risk of being poisoned nowadays lies more in the accidental factor, where poison be induced or taken by accident or in the form of deliberate self harm. These problems occur more frequently in children and poisoning is the fourth most common cause of death within young people.”

Her research showed that the trend of organophosphorous poisoning was almost the same while there was an increasing trend in drug overdose, kerosene, poisoning by rate killer, dhatura, unknown poisoning, opium, and snakebite.

Chemical poisoning was found around 71.44 per cent in the total patients brought to the NPCC from 2007 to 2010. The rate of recovery was noted as 93.65 per cent, while the rest was left against medical advice.

Among other centres, the Faisalabad Poison Control Centre received 1,428 poison cases in 2003, including 789 those taking the wheat pills (aluminium phosphide (56 per cent) and other ingredients).

At the Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad, 82 cases, including 24 females, of suicide attempts were registered from July to December 2008, all were within 40 years of age, mostly less than 30. Of them, 50 were single, while 32 were married.

Discussing the aspect of the deliberate self harm (DSH), Prof Ara said the most common cause of poison intake in records of the NPCC was found to be suicide and parasuicide. A further analysis showed that domestic crisis and violence was the most common reason in females, while in males there was financial issues and joblessness.

In case of youths, most factors recorded were peer pressures, lack of education, bad habits and bad company. Other causes were found to be chronic illness, legal, social and economic discriminations, low socioeconomic status, chronically poor physical health and being unmarried.