OBJECTIVES: to describe drug intoxication among children under five years old in Brazil. METHODS:the source of information is a database from an intoxication surveillance system, SINITOX (National System of Toxicological Information), located in the city of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. All cases of drug intoxication, among children under five years old, in 1997 and 1998, were examined. We analyzed event frequency, therapeutic class, follow- up and circumstances. RESULTS: in Brazil, there were 151.000 intoxication cases in the focused period. Almost one third was associated to medication, and about forty thousand occurred among children less than five years old. Analgesics, the decongestants, the bronchodilators, the antiepileptics and oral contraceptives were the therapeutic classes involved, and the decongestants, the antiepileptics, the antihistamines and the expectorants were associated to cause of death. The surveillance system pointed out that individual accidents, medication errors and therapeutic misuse were the main circumstances involved. CONCLUSIONS: drug intoxication is a major public health problem, for which intervention measures are necessary. Educational and regulatory actions could decrease the number of accidents and injuries. The main inadequacies of SINITOX are under-registration, lack of integration with health services and poor data uniformity.
Drug toxicity; Pharmaceutical preparations; Public health
