Rising temperatures due to climate change are becoming a global problem. Due to heat, along with heat stroke, chronic diseases have also started taking effect due to which deaths are also increasing. According to experts of the Climate Change and Human Health Program (NPCCHH), there has been an 85 percent increase in heat-related deaths between 2013 and 2022 compared to 1991 to 2000.
If the Earth continues to warm like this and the maximum temperature continues to rise, then by 2050, deaths due to heat worldwide are expected to increase by about 370%. For the first time in the country, guidelines have been prepared for autopsies of deaths due to heat. The Central Government has asked to share it with all the states and deliver it to every hospital. In the instructions issued to all medical colleges and district hospitals, it has been said that postmortem of those who die due to heat is not necessary but hyperthermia should be written on the death certificate.
Roli Singh, Additional Director, Union Health Ministry, has started North India’s first heat stroke room at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi. Heat stroke cases coming to the hospital will be brought here directly from the emergency and they will be kept in cold water for some time because every minute counts in the beginning of cooling.
Apart from this, citing a study from Western America, it has also been said that if the daily normal temperature increases by 4.7 degree Celsius in the summer season, then the cases of cardiovascular i.e. heart attack can increase by about 2.6%. Dilip Mavalankar, director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, says that the system related to births and deaths in the country is not completely organized due to which cases of death due to heat or cold are not identified correctly. These are recorded in cases of excess deaths.
