Acute poisoning mortality rate in Plovdiv Region, Bulgaria.

The severe recession in Bulgaria which followed the collapse of the totalitarian regime in 1989 had an unfavourable impact on the health status of the population. Systematic studies of acute poisoning mortality rate in the transitional period (1990-98) are scarce in the post-totalitarian Eastern European countries and are lacking in Bulgaria. This retrospective study analysed 1,150 deaths due to acute poisoning in Plovdiv Region for the period 1961-98. Acute poisoning mortality rate was moderately high in the period between 1990 and 1998 with respect to the average of 4.99 per 100,000 a year. It grew steadily during rapid socialist industrialization (1961-90) and showed a trend of slight decrease during transition (1991-1998). The decrease may largely be accounted for by the foundation of the regional toxicological centre and to a certain degree by a drop in industrial and agricultural production and exposure to hazards.