Table 3. “True” case-fatality rate (CFR) for various poison types and CFRs that would be obtained with three possible hospital admission data sets, Anuradhapura district, Sri Lanka, September 2008 to January 2010.

Poisoning type	“True” totala			Primary hospitalsb				Referral hospitalc							All admissionsd
	No. admitted	CFR		No. admitted	Deaths	CFR (95% CI)		No. admitted			Deaths		CFRe (95% CI)		No. admitted	Deaths	CFR (95% CI)
								Directly	Transferred		In cases admitted directly	In transfers
Organophosphates and carbamate	706	5.8		603	6	1.0 (0.4–2.2)		103	498		6	29	5.8 (4.1–8.0)		1204	41	3.4 (2.5–4.6)
Paraquat	77	22.1		55	0	0.0 (0.0–6.5)		22	49		8	9	23.9 (14.6–35.5)		126	17	13.5 (8.1–20.7)
Other pesticide	790	4.8		694	4	0.6 (0.2–1.5)		95	526		0	34	5.5 (3.8–7.6)		1315	38	2.9 (2.1–3.9)
Medicine overdose	789	0.6		561	0	0.0 (0.0–0.7)		228	399		0	5	0.8 (0.3–1.9)		1188	5	0.4 (0.1–1.0)
Oleander	393	4.1		299	1	0.3 (0.01–1.8)		94	269		2	13	4.1 (2.3–6.7)		662	16	2.4 (1.4–3.9)
Other	1058	5.7		899	5	0.6 (0.2–1.3)		106	546		6	49	7.8 (5.9–10.0)		1605	60	3.7 (2.9–4.8)
Total	3813	4.6		3111	16	0.5 (0.3–0.8)		702	2287		22	139	5.4 (4.6–6.3)		6091	177	2.9 (2.5–3.4)

CI, confidence interval.

^a Sum of all direct acute poisoning admissions to the district’s primary hospitals and its referral hospital (i.e. all admissions minus transfers).

^b All admissions to primary hospitals (all are direct admissions, no referrals).

^c All admissions (both direct and transfers) to the referral hospital.

^d Raw total of all admissions to all hospitals in the district (routine method used for government statistics, which double counts patients transferred to referral hospitals).

^e CFR is based on the sum of deaths among transferred patients and patients directly admitted.