{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,30]],"date-time":"2026-10-30T17:22:45Z","timestamp":1793380965002,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,20]],"date-time":"2023-10-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1697760000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Globally, childhood poisoning, accounts for a significant proportion of emergency department admissions. There is a paucity of data from low- and middle-income countries on poisoning in children.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title><jats:p>To describe the incidence, case fatality rate, and types of poisoning in children admitted to a tertiary-level hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>This was a retrospective descriptive study of children hospitalised with poisoning from January 2016 to December 2021 at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. Children were identified from a discharge summary database using ICD-10 codes that describe poisoning. Trends in incidence of poison exposure were reported.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Of the 60,901 admissions during the study period, 2,652 (4.4%) children were diagnosed with poisoning. Most (71.3%) children were less than 5\u2009years of age and 55% were male. The incidence of poisoning per 100,000 was highest at 108.4 (95% CI: 104.3\u2013112.6) in 2019 and decreased to 77.3 (95% CI: 73.9\u201380.7) in 2020 and 59.6 (95% CI: 56.3\u201362.5) in 2021. Main causes of poisoning were organic solvents (37.6%), medications (32.9%), and pesticides (17.5%). The overall case fatality rate was 2.1%. In a multivariate analysis, poisoning secondary to pesticides (aOR: 13.9; 95% CI: 4.52\u201360.8; <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.001), and unspecified agents (aOR: 12.7; 95% CI: 3.27\u201362.8; <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.001) were associated with an increased odds of death.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>We report a high prevalence of poisoning in children hospitalised in this tertiary-level hospital in South Africa. Public health measures to reduce the burden of organic solvents, medications and pesticide poisoning are urgently warranted.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2023.1279036","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,20]],"date-time":"2023-10-20T13:17:58Z","timestamp":1697807878000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["The burden of poisoning in children hospitalised at a tertiary-level hospital in South 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