Poison Information Centre to open at Victoria Hospital

Bengaluru: Soon, a one-of-a-kind Poison Information Centre at the Government-run Victoria Hospital will open and is sure to be of immense help to all those who have accidentally or otherwise, consumed poison.

Victoria Hospital's emergency and trauma centre will soon have an analytical toxicology laboratory and a poison information centre, which will classify and pinpoint the different kinds of hazardous poisons. Both the lab and information centre are the first of their kind in Karnataka. "There is a wide variety of hazardous chemical substances, which people may come in contact with accidentally.

Lives can be lost  because of delayed treatment and also lack of knowledge about the line of treatment to be taken. The information centre will be operational round-the- clock, with experts in toxicology who will be skilled at bifurcating the exact substance or chemical consumed by the caller, based on the symptoms and other characteristics," says a source at the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI).

Until now there was only one forensic laboratory at Madiwala. This is the sole centre where blood samples are collected to analyze the nature of the substance consumed. There is no government set-up in Karnataka to analyze live samples.

With the establishment of the analytical toxicology laboratory and poison information centre, BMCRI will soon cater to the needs of all those making frantic calls from across the State. The information centre will handle calls coming from across the State on their helpline. The Centre will also install a software containing  a database on a host of harmful chemicals and their characteristics.

"The probability of ingestion of these substances and harmful products either accidentally or intentionally has increased manifold. Acute poisoning is one of the commonest emergencies throughout the world. So this centre would reduce chances of death or other complications immensely," said the source.