Assessment of Acute Antidote Shortage and its Effect on Treatment Outcome

According to World Health Organization (WHO) report of 2004, unintentional poisoning has caused more than 346,000 deaths worldwide. The proportion of death that occurs because of poisoning is 91% in low-middle income countries [3,4]. With respect to World Income classification, Pakistan falls under lowmiddle income countries of the world [5]. In Pakistan, because of scarcity of poisoning surveillance, the epidemiological data on poisoning is inadequate and fragmented [6]. Furthermore, neither any policy makers nor any academicians had presented any report about the burden of injuries and poisoning [7]. The first report on drug overdose and poisoning was presented by NPCC (National Poison Control Center) of Pakistan in 2006. This report had retrospective data of 588 poisoned patients who were presented to NPCC from 1998 to 2002. According to this report, the mortality rate because of poison ingestion is 2.89% [8].