Changing Trends of Medico-legal Cases during period of Lock Down due to Covid-19 in Agra District

ABSTRACT

Introduction: During global Covid-19 pandemic, India fought against the situation by implementing strict lockdown in whole country starting from 25th March 2020. Looking at severity of situation government decided to extend it in 4 phases till 31st May, 2020 which has been applied strictly in all district belonging to "Red Zone". Agra is the worst hit district in Uttar-Pradesh and it remained in the condition of strict Lockdown. Materials and Methods: Record-based comparative cross-sectional study looking for the impact of lockdown on change in pattern and number of medico-legal cases in Agra was done. Data related to name, age, sex, place of residence, type of medico-legal case was collected from records of medicolegal cases admitted in Emergency department of S.N. Medical College, Agra for the period of 25th March to 31 May 2020 (lockdown period) and compared it with data collected from 25th March to 31st May 2019 i.e. data of same corresponding period in last year. Results: On comparison we found out that during lockdown there was a decrease in no. of total admissions by 37.7%, while no. of medico legal cases is decreased by 54.2%. On further analysis of the data maximum decrease is seen in cases of road traffic accident, burns and firearm injuries while there was an increase in number of MLC cases of hanging. On gender wise comparison it was found that during lockdown period male MLC patients are decreased by 62.9% while female MLC patients decreased by 23.5%, which is lesser than decrease in total no. of admission. Interestingly we found out that there is increase in no. of MLC cases of female poisoning and hanging also increased significantly which might be due to increased domestic unrest or financial crisis emerged due to lockdown. Although on comparison of age groups no significant difference is seen during lockdown period. On area-wise comparison there was a decrease from 33% to 18% in total no. of MLC cases coming from districts other than Agra. This may be due to affected referral service or restrictions in inter-district transport. Conclusions: There is overall decrease in medico-legal cases with increased cases of hanging. Cases of female poisoning is also increased probably due to undue raised burden caused due to lockdown. © 2021, Punjab Academy of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. All rights reserved.