TOXICOLOGICAL AID TO POPULATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: STATUS AND PROBLEMS
Over the last years a noticeable reduction of a number of patients admitted to hospital with acute chemical poisonings was observed, by 20.1% on an average. Up to 57% of hospitalization were poisonings with substances of no accepted medical use, predominantly with alcohol (43.8 on the average). About 12.8% were patients of elderly age, lethality among whom reached up to 9.98% compared to 4.47% in the group of up to 60 year people.. Lethality from poisonings with alcohol also lowered by 47.1% over last 10 years. Main causes of lethal poisonings are alcohol, carbon oxide, narcotics, the latter shows a tendency towards an increase. In Russia centers for acute poisonings operate in 38 territories, encompassing less than 50% of the country’s population. In the present economic situation, the urgent problem is to create a network of information and advisory toxicological centers in the territories with a low population size which would afford to provide a toxicological assistance in any venue of the country without requiring significant financial expenses.