By Alexia Saoulli
PARACETAMOL is the leading cause of non-narcotic poisoning in Cyprus, a clinical pharmacist said yesterday, with cleaning agents responsible for the majority of accidental household poisonings.
Dr. Athos Tsinontides, 35, a clinical pharmacist at the Poison Control Centre, said the Centre had been established in 1997. It lies under the Health Ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services and operates during government working hours. But its purpose is not to act as a poison advice centre for the public. Instead it serves as a poison research and information centre, he said.
“Our goal is not to deal with emergency situations as it is abroad,” he told the Cyprus Mail. “If someone has ingested a form of poison, he or she should go to hospital or clinic emergency departments.” The Centre itself is not equipped to handle emergency situations, as it does not operate on a 24-hour basis due to severe understaffing.
“Although we can and do answer questions concerning toxic products, we only do so until 2.30pm, when there is always at least one clinical pharmacist on duty to answer the phone. However, there is no real need in Cyprus for a 24-hour service yet, because there are not enough cases that require our assistance,” he said.
“At this stage, people ask us questions on how toxic a medication is for example, or whether or not a certain pharmaceutical product might prevent pregnancy.”
Instead, the facility acts as more of a support system for emergency departments at public hospitals.
“We investigate and research the most common forms of poisoning in Cyprus and ensure that hospitals have a sufficient supply of antidotes for those poisons,” said Tsinontides, adding that they also gave seminars on poisons, published articles on the topic and kept the Ministry up to date on the latest statistics.
Five years ago, the centre wanted to identify what were the most common forms of poisonings in Cyprus, he said. The poisonings were separated into two categories: medical drug poisonings and household and industrial product poisonings.
“We investigated which group of people suffered poisoning, what these poisons were and then made sure that the antidotes for the relevant poisons were made available at emergency departments across the country,” said Tsinontides.
The results of the study mirrored statistics in other industrialised countries, he said.
“The most frequent form of non-narcotic drug poisoning comes from paracetamol, which people ingest during suicide attempts.” Although this might not seem like a dangerous drug, if 50-60 pills are swallowed, it will kill, he said.
“It is an acute poison but its lethal effects are not immediate and so you have time to get to hospital. If someone has taken a huge amount of paracetamol they should get to hospital as soon as possible, or at least within the next 10 to 15 hours.”
If a person were not treated in that time frame, liver and renal failure would lead to death, he said.
In the second category, the most common form of poisoning resulted from household products, particularly cleaning agents.
“These are what we class as accidental poisonings and sometimes, depending on the agent induced, an antidote might not even be necessary.” Tsinontides stressed that not all forms of poisoning involved treatment and that a duty doctor would assess whether it was necessary.
The study found two poisoning peaks in different age groups, he said.
“The first rise in poisoning incidents is between the ages of one and four. This is because children are very curious in this age group and want to try things out. We then noticed a decrease between the ages of five to 19, followed by another peak between 20 and 49-year-olds,” he said. This peak indicates a social problem, with most cases involving suicide attempts.
Tsinontides said that the centre’s major concern was educating the public and health organisations on prevention.
“Thirty-three per cent of poisonings occur in children,” he said. “These are accidental poisonings and can be prevented.”
Of the remainder of poisonings, some involved snakebites, accidents, industrial exposure, as well as suicide attempts. “We believe 30-35 per cent of these incidents are suicide attempts. This indicates a social issue, which is a much bigger problem and needs to be dealt with differently,” he said.
At the time the study was carried out, statistics were taken from hospital admissions and the cases involving poisoning from narcotics overdoses were negligible, Tsinontides added, warning that if the study were repeated, it would probably be much higher due to increasing drug use on the island.
