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People were advised to be extremely careful when taking Western medicines because they accounted for 591 of the 995 poisoning cases reported to the public hospitals in the second half of 2005, the Deputy Director of Health, Dr TH Leung said today (April 28).
Reviewing the causes of the poisoning cases reported to six of the public hospitals during the period, Dr Leung said the most common poisoning agents were sleeping pills (31%), followed by pain killers (14%), antidepressants (12%) as well as flu and cold medication (10%).
Dr Leung added that another 122 cases (12%) were caused by multiple agents including Western medicines and household products such as bleach and insecticide.
"Insect stings and bites, household products, environmental chemicals and Chinese medicines accounted for 105 (11%), 64 (6%), 52 (5%) and 33 (3%) of the 995 cases respectively," he said.
Dr Leung noted that 54% of the cases were suicidal in nature while other 20% were due to accidents and 9% were related to recreational activities.
He said 54% of the cases took place at homes while 4% occurred in workplaces.
He called on people to observe the following measures to avoid medicine poisoning:
* Take the exact amount of medicine according to doctor's instruction;
* Always keeps medication in a designated cabinet with a lock;
* Discard all leftover or expired medicines;
* To seek medical consultation when feeling unwell;
* Make sure to read the medicine's label and instructions carefully if the medicines were bought over-the-counter;
* Take note of the dosage, ingredients, indications, warnings, and side effects;
* Do not take other people's medicine
* Do not make it up with an extra dose next time around if you miss one dose of medication as this could lead to overdose;
* Do not take more than one kind of medication at a time to avoid harmful drug interaction; unless under a doctor's instructions
* Do not take medicines in the dark in order to avoid any mistake;
* Do not store medicine in any containers for food or designated for other medicine;
* Do not put different kinds of drugs in one bottle;
* Do not refer medicine as "candy" when giving it to children.
Ends/Friday, April 28, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:36
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