Heat Spell in Karachi 2017

By Khazima Munaf

The heat wave in Karachi is likely to persist with temperature to touch 38 to above 40 degrees Celsius. Citizens have been advised to stay indoors and not venture out in the sun unnecessarily. The Met department has also advised citizens to increase their intake of water to prevent a heat stroke.

The current spell of scorching heat however has increased incidences of dehydration and food poisoning. Eminent physician and senior medical officer Dr. Ashfaq Qureshi warned last year that heatstroke is the severe injury from high body temperature that causes damage to many organs, particularly the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord. When the body is unable to cool itself off, the core body temperature rises rapidly and the brain begins to fail,he added.

Experts have been giving dire warnings against the lethal effects of rising heat across the globe for long but they have remained neglected as far as policy initiatives for crisis management are concerned. Now it is claimed by experts that severe heat stress is anticipated to mount even if countries contained global warming at agreed-upon levels.

If the population continued growing at this speed, over 350 million people will be affected by this deadly spell by 2050. This summer is anticipated to be a déjà vu of 2015 heat waves, which took 1,200 lives in Pakistan and above 2,000 from India. Cynics, however, say that Governments misreported the casualties to save face.

It is imperative that to save more lives, officials should plan ahead of the disaster and start afforestation schemes and strengthen their crisis management networks. Cool public spaces, clean potable water availability and minimizing load shedding are just the minimal expected from authorities.

Like all heat-related illnesses, heat illness or strokes are preventable like ..

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