Epidemiology of Unnatural Death Due to Suspected Poisoning in Varanasi, India

Poisoning has a serious psychological and social impact on the family and community. The aim of this study is to find out how death due to suspected poisoning affects incidence, age, sex, habitat, marital status, religion and manner of death. The study is based on the autopsy record of 5 consecutive years (2009 to 2013) of unnatural death cases resulting from suspected poisoning. Total numbers of autopsy cases were 10195 and death due to suspected poisoning were 896. These cases were brought to the Department of Forensic Medicine, IMS, BHU Varanasi and have been analyzed retrospectively. The suspected poisoning constitute 8.79 % of total autopsied cases. Male victims (71.54 %) outnumbered females (28.46 %) and maximum numbers of cases were in the age group of 21-30 years (38.73 %). Among those whose marital status was known i. e.194 cases (21.65 %), 0 % cases are male and 100 % are female. More cases (73.95 %) are from rural habitat than urban. Hindus outnumbered 817 (91.18 %) the Muslims. Regarding the manner of death, 861 (96.09 %) cases of death due to poisoning, were suicidal. Most of the fatal poisoning were maximum during summer season 368 (41.07 %). Analysis of data suggests that age, sex, habitat, marital status, religion and manner of death significantly affect the community.