AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (AJASR) Nekkal, et al., Vol. 2, Issue. 1, pp. 47-58, 2013 47 The Predicting Severity Factors Following Scorpion Envenomation In El Kelâa Des Sraghnas – Morocco Nesma Nekkal 1* , Rachida Soulaymani- Bencheikh 2, 3 , Abdelrhani Mokhtari 1 , Hamid El bazaoui 1 Rachid Hmimou 1 , Abdelmajid Soulaymani 1 1 Laboratory of Genetics and Biometry, Faculty of Sciences, University Ibn Tofail, Kenitra, Morocco 2 Moroccan Poison Control and pharmacovigilance Center, Rabat, Morocco Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco *Corresponding Author Email address: nasmanek@hotmail.com ABSTRACT Scorpion stings comprise a serious public health problem throughout the globe, especially in regions where they are more frequent. In Morocco, El Kelâa des Sraghnas is one of the provinces most affected by this burden. This retrospective study aimed to trace the epidemiological profile of hospitalized stung patients (class II and III) and to determine the clinical sign related to the death by scorpion envenomation. Our work is an analytical study of scorpion stings based on hospital files of stung patients referred during 2002 to 2006. The objective is to identify the clinical signs associated with death by envenomation scorpions (classe II and III), based on hospital files of the hospital Essalama in El Kalaa des Sraghnas. Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 20 and STATISTICA version 9. The descriptive analysis focused on the sociodemographic parameters (age, sex, time after sting), clinical and therapeutical features. 896 patients were included in this study. The sex ratio is close to 1 and the median age was 18.76 ± 0.65. All age groups were affected by this problem, with a higher lethality rate in children aged less than or equal to 15 years (14.5%). Moreover, the stings were more frequent at night between 6:00 pm. and 6:00 am. The analysis of the various factors influencing the death showed that the priapism in boys, vital distress and Glasgow Coma Scale at admission , are risk factors in determining the vital prognosis of patients. Also, the analysis of lethality evolution showed that its rate remains high despite the Moroccan strategy against scorpion stings. The results of our study clearly displayed that scorpion envenomation remains a public health problem in Morocco. Favourable evolution was in 90.3% of cases. 87 deaths were recorded (9.7%). The priapism, the different distress (cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological) and the classe III at admission, are statistically significant and associated with death (p<0.001). Keywords: Scorpion, Sting, envenomation, epidemiology, Risk factors, vital distress, El Kelâa des Sraghnas, Morocco INTRODUCTION Scorpion envenomation is seen as a public-health problem in tropical and subtropical regions, especially in North Africa, Latin America, India, and the Middle East [1-4]. The Moroccan Poison Control Center reports that scorpion stings are the most frequent cause of envenomations in the country, representing between 30 and 50% of all registered cases [5-7]. El Kelâa des Sraghnas is one of the Moroccan regions most affected by this problem with a high incidence and high lethality due essentially to the species richness of the scorpion fauna, especially Androctonus mauretanicus and Buthus occitanus (Figure 1) are two most common venomous species of scorpion in the area [5-8].