Alcohol poisoning kills 130 villagers in Didi's Bengal

18 September, 2012

More than 130 poor people died due to alcohol poisoning after drinking the country-made liquor in West Bengal. The number of deaths may rise as more victims are being treated in various hospitals.

THE DEATHS due to drinking illegal country made liquor are very common in India. Many cases of alcohol poisoning were registered in Bangalore and Gujarat during the last few years. Generally the rickshaw pullers and the leather workers are the major victims of alcohol poisoning.

Alcohol poisoning is a serious issue as it can lead to death. If a person drinks a toxic amount of alcohol in a short span of time then the blood alcohol levels rise exponentially and it becomes toxic. This can affect the person's breathing, heart rate and sometimes it may potentially lead to death or coma. Alcohol poisoning can be life threatening and requires an urgent medical treatment.

The most common cause of alcohol poisoning is binge drinking. Some other causes of alcohol drinking can be drinking illegal country made liquors or if somebody drinks alcohol containing some household things unknowingly (less common cause).

The alcohol consumed by the person is filtered inside the body by the liver. The liver filters the alcohol, a toxin, from the blood and purifies it. The alcohol is absorbed by the body much faster than the food and it enters the blood stream more quickly. But, the liver can process a limited amount of alcohol, and if the person drinks alcohol at a faster pace then the liver is unable to filter it, and the blood alcohol concentration rises, resulting in alcohol poisoning.

The symptoms of alcohol poisoning are vomitting, seizures, confusion, slow and irregular breathing, pale skin, hypothermia and unconsciousness. The really serious symptoms of alcohol poisoning can be its effect on breathing; sometimes the breathing might stop completely and leads to death. In some other unusual symptoms of alcohol poisoning, a person can inhale his own vomit into the lungs and the lungs gets damaged and the other one is hypothermia.

Alcohol poisoning is a medical urgency; if you feel that your neighbour or friend is suffering from alcohol poisoning, then you should immediately call an ambulance, and make the patient to stay awake, keep him in sitting position; if he is able to take water then give him some water to drink, don't offer coffee; don't let them lie on their back and don't let them walk.

After reaching the hospital the doctor will check the patient's blood alcohol consumption levels and will observe the symptoms of alcohol poisoning. The treatment of alcohol poisoning will be given initially by inserting an equipment that will help the patient in breathing, then he will be given intravenous drip. In some cases the fluids from the stomach of the patient are flushed out through a tube. There are no specific medications for alcohol poisoning and only intravenous fluids are administered to the patients.