Acute poisoning at two hospitals in Kampala-Uganda

The aim of this study was to characterize acute poisoning cases admitted to two hospitals in Kampala, Uganda.

All cases admitted to the two hospitals, from January 2005 to June 2005, were evaluated retrospectively. Data obtained from the hospital medical records included the following: demographic characteristics, toxic agents, length of stay, circumstances of poisoning, and mortality information on the victims.

Of the total 276 patients admitted for treatment, whose mean age was 26.6 (+/-12.2) years, 71.0 % were males. The age category of 20-29 years old most affected (42.8%), while only 5.1% of those affected were younger than 13 years old. Toxic agents involved in the incidents were, in descending order, agrochemicals (42.4%), household chemicals (22.1%), carbon monoxide (20.0%), snakebites (14.1%), and food poisoning (1.4%). There was a statistically significant difference with regard to gender, females were more victims of poisoning by snake bites (25.0% vs. 9.7%) and food poisoning (2.5% vs. 1.0%), while males were more affected by carbon monoxide (25.5% vs. 6.3%). Moreover, 61.2% patients spent less than 2 days in hospital, the mean length of stay was 2.1 days, with a range of 1 to 26 days. The overall case fatality rate was 1.4%; of those who died, 75% were males, and the toxic agents responsible for the death were alcohol (50%), carbon monoxide (25%), and organophosphate (25%).

Acute poisoning involved more men, who spent more than 2 days being hospitalized, and resulted in a case fatality rate of 1.4% due to alcohol, carbon monoxide, and organophosphates. These findings suggest that further studies are warranted in order to understand the motivation(s) for this emerging problem, and plan appropriate interventions.