Dear Editor,
Defense personnel are exposed to various hazards of travel namely accidents, injuries, thefts, assaults and also poisoning with criminal intent. A retrospective analysis of the hospitalization records of the individuals admitted at a zonal hospital with poisoning of unknown origin over 26 months was carried out. 86 patients were admitted with criminal poisoning while travelling in this time period, comprising 18.5% of all emergency admissions and 0.4% of all admissions. Based on the history, the different modes of administration of the offending agent were compiled and are as per Table 1. The commonest place of occurrence of the drugging was while on the train (81.3%) followed by the market place (18.6%); usually by an indl who appeared to befriend them. Nearly all the patients reported loss of personal belongings and identity cards. Fortunately, all patients admitted recovered without any neurological deficit, and there were no fatalities. According to literature, commonest drugs identified in blood and urine samples of victims are benzodiazepines (74%). The other drugs are alcohol, hypnotics (zopiclone, zolpidem), sedatives (neuroleptics, some antihistaminic agents) or anesthetics (gamma-hydroxybutyrate or “Liquid Ecstasy”, ketamine).1–3
Table 1.
Distribution of cases as per mode of administration of the poison delivery agent.
| S no | Mode of administration | Drug delivery agent | Number of episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oral | Foodstuffs | 28 (32.5%) |
| Tea | 13 (15.1%) | ||
| Juice | 09 (10.4%) | ||
| Strange substance | 05 (05.8%) | ||
| Water | 03 (03.4%) | ||
| Tobacco | 02 (02.3%) | ||
| Soup | 01 (01.1%) | ||
| Liquor | 01 (01.1%) | ||
| 2 | Inhalational | Cigarettes | 02 (02.3%) |
| Spray | 01 (01.1%) | ||
| 3 | Unknown | 21 (24.4%) | |
Indian troops are largely deployed in insurgency-affected areas; criminal poisoning not only results in physical injury and monetary loss but can also have serious implications in the form of leakage of sensitive information and loss of identity cards. Thus travel-related criminal poisoning is a grave medico-social-cum-administrative problem faced by military personnel. Therefore it is imperative the armed forces personnel should be repeatedly educated regarding the possibility of poisoning during travel and its medical as well as administrative implications.
References
- 1.Prakash J., Singh P.K., Kotwal A., Ramakrishnan T.S. Unknown poisoning amongst serving personnel. MJAFI. 2009;65:41–43. doi: 10.1016/S0377-1237(09)80053-1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Majumdera M.A., Bashera A., Faizab M.A. Criminal poisoning of commuters in Bangladesh: prospective and retrospective study. Forensic Sci Int. 2008;180(1):10–16. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2008.06.016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Madea B., Musshoff F. Knock-out drugs: their prevalence, modes of action, and means of detection. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2009;106(20):341–347. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2009.0341. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]