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Rising temperatures and absence of rain has seen nearly 200 cases of heatstroke reported in Pune, Satara and Solapur districts in the past few days.
According to the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) Heat Wave report for Pune constituency (Pune, Satara and Solapur), out of a total of 2.31 people screened in outpatient department (medical/paediatrics/emergency) from March till now this year, Health officials were able to identify 19 heatstroke patients from Pune, 70 from Satara and 91 from Solapur.
However, there were no deaths due to heatstroke in the three districts, officials of the Deputy Director of Health, Pune Circle, told the Indian Express. Data was collected from 458 health units including government-run primary health centres, rural hospitals, civil dispensaries and district hospitals.
States were instructed to watch for heat-related illnesses as it was a very warm summer and while Pune did not report deaths, according to official data, there were a total of 12 people who suffered heatstroke across Maharashtra. Health officials said a total of 2,649 heatstroke cases were reported from March to date, with the majority (412) coming from Raigad district. All 12 deaths were reported from Raigad district. There were 334 cases of heatstroke in Warda followed by 317 cases in Nagpur. Among the districts which reported a high number of cases of heatstroke include Chandrapur, Nandurbar, Amorvati, Latore, Mumbai Suburban and Thani. Extreme heat conditions have been associated with an increased chance of heatstroke and fatigue.
Dr Amit Dravid, an infectious disease expert at Noble Hospital, Pune, told Indian Express that hot and humid weather conditions can affect the body’s compensatory mechanism – sweating. High humidity inhibits the body’s ability to naturally cool and leads to symptoms such as high fever and muscle cramps.
He said, “I always advise patients to drink at least four liters of water to prevent dehydration.” Doctors said heat exhaustion is a milder form of heat-related illness but if not treated it can lead to heatstroke.
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