Poison control centre to intensify education on preventive measures

THE National Poison Control Centre has now prioritised creating more awareness to residents of Dar es Salaam on how to alleviate the effects of poisons after consuming them and their handling mechanisms.

The move comes in the wake of report that the city has been topping the list of regions with high number of reported cases of people consuming poisons.

The centre, which was established in 2016, is under the Government Chemist Laboratory Authority (GCLA).

“We now put more focus on educating people in Dar es Salaam over how to get rid of poisons. For the past five years the city has been topping the list of regions with high number of cases of poison,” Centre’s coordinator Yohana Goshashi told the Daily News during an interview during the weekend.

He admitted that the awareness was still low about the role of the centre to the public.

Elaborating on usefulness of the centre, Mr Goshashi said the facility, which is located at GCLA premises in Dar es Salaam, was established with aim of enabling the country to combat incidents of poisoning.

It has a database for collecting information over incidents of poisoning and offers technics to members of public and medics on how to control effects of consumed poison.

“The members of the public or medics call to ask what what step to take to help a person who has consumed poison,” he said.

He argued that if people effectively use the centre for seeking information on what to do upon consuming poison it may help them to avoid going to hospitals over cases that can be handled at home.

He said it has been a norm that when a person consumes poison they give him or her some milk as immediate intervention.

“Not all poisons are controlled since they behave differently upon being consumed. Some of them may be controlled by r drinking some milk, but for others milk acts as catalyst,” he said.