Data Toxicology in Portugal: Where are we?

Abstract

Despite the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO), there are no global statistics on clinical intoxications. While WHO recommends that all countries establish and strengthen poison centers, less than half of WHO member states have only one of these centers. Due the lack of information, this article aims to give a current and critical view of the situation of clinical toxicology in Portugal. Studies and data about clinical intoxications in hospital emergency services in Portugal between 2010 and 2022 were analyzed. In Portugal, there are only some punctual national studies concentrated in certain geographic areas. Different poisoning parameters were regarded. In those studies, differences were found concerning the route of administration, the time distribution of poisonings and the toxic substances involved. The results are in line with the statistics of the official Poison Center of Portugal Centro de Informação Antivenenos. There is still a lot to be done by the Portuguese authorities to emulate other countries’ situation. This is the only way to get to know the country’s profile, through comparison with data from other countries, and also allowing establishing public health policies and alert systems.