Efficacy of atropine points to pesticide poisoning
Srinagar, Jan 2: In a significant development, the administration of atropine to patients in the fourth cluster of the "mysterious poisoning cases" in Badhaal village of Rajouri, has shown promising results, with doctors reporting dramatic improvement in patients.
According to medical experts, atropine is a universal antidote used to treat poisoning cases, particularly those involving organophosphates (OP) and carbamates. The fact that patients have responded well to atropine suggests that they may have been exposed to either OP or carbamate poisoning.
Both OP and carbamates are found in pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides.
These are toxic to humans and can cause a variety of effects including death. These chemicals trigger excess acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter in the brain and body.
Atropine is used to treat OP and carbamate poisoning as it blocks acetylcholine.
Principal of GMC Jammu, Dr Ashutosh Gupta concurred that clinical suspicion was pointing towards OP poisoning, which is commonly found in pesticides. “We are treating patients with atropine now after a long and elaborate process of elimination,” he said.
Notably, atropine was not administered to patients in the earlier three clusters, except for two patients, as the exact nature of the toxin was unclear. However, with the patients in the fourth cluster responding positively to atropine, medical experts are hopeful that they may have finally found a lead in treating the mysterious poisoning cases.
GMC Principal said that a classic symptom of OP poisoning i.e., pupil constriction, was absent in the Badhaal victims.
“This perhaps was the reason that the patients were not administered atropine earlier. But now, we have come to a conclusion that patients are surviving with regular atropine doses,” he said.
Dr Gupta said laboratory confirmation reports of samples were still awaited and the exact cause of the poisoning remained unknown. “However, the use of atropine has provided a crucial breakthrough in the investigation and medical experts are cautiously optimistic about the prospects of treating the affected patient,” he said.
A senior doctor treating the patients said that the victims died in clusters and how they were exposed to a high and lethal dose of a toxin, most probably a pesticide or insecticide was for Police to determine.
“We have strong reasons to believe it’s pesticide poisoning,” the doctor told Greater Kashmir.
“Carbamate is different from OP and is also present in pesticides. Aldicarb, sulfon etc., are carbamates. Atropine is used in all of these poisoning cases,” he said.
Asked whether these neurotoxins were found in the samples of food, the doctor emphasized that the focus should shift from food samples to the serum of the patients to determine the exact nature of the poisoning.
“Farming communities are exposed to a rainbow of toxins from pesticides and insecticides. Pretty obvious many toxins will be discovered. But the fact they responded well to atropine suggests carbamate or OP poisoning.”
In Badhaal, 17 people belonging to three related families, 14 of them minors, died under mysterious circumstances. The fourth cluster with over 10 affected individuals came to fore last week. All the affected are improving, doctors have stated.