A 10-year review of the Teaching Hospital-Based National Drug and Toxicology Information Service in Zimbabwe.

Abstract

The drug and toxicology information service (DaTIS), at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Zimbabwe Medical School, was set up in 1979. The service is mainly delivered to health professionals and to a lesser extent to the community. The DaTIS is designed to help solve complex clinical questions. Most of the requests are made by telephone. Urgent questions may be initially answered by telephone, or a phone call can be returned after in-depth documentation. A complete answer with references may be written and sent to the enquirer. Written non-urgent questions may be sent a few days to a few weeks later. This report is based on a systematic review of records compiled over the period between January 1983 and July 1988. Of the 1,000 requests received and recorded during the period under consideration, approximately 750 (75%) were on drug information and 250 (25%) were on poisoning or toxicological information. The most common causes of poisonings were due to organophosphate pesticides and fertilizers, Elephant's Ear, Amanita Phalloides mushroom, medicines affecting the central nervous system, e.g. tranquilizers, psychotropics, and chemicals, especially those used for hair relaxing. Only the first three causes of poisoning are discussed in detail. Most of the queries relating to poisoning, especially those received during the night, were not recorded. These results confirm the need for an adequate number of qualified and committed manpower to share the work-load in DaTIS as well as in teaching, research and in the continuous health education of the community. The results obtained by DaTIS and a recent survey (14) indicate that Zimbabwe has a big poisoning problem, especially with regard to pesticides and treatments recommended by the traditional healer. Education and information dissemination to health professionals, workers and the general public on the toxic agents concerned are vital and, although steps have been taken in this direction, much still remains to be done. Moreover, the report confirms the importance of the service to health professionals and the community in the country and the SADCC (Southern African Development Conference Committee) region as a whole.