900 reported dead in two-week India heat wave

SUNSTROKE and dehydration claimed another 160 lives in a southern Indian state, raising the death toll from a two-week heat wave to nearly 900, a relief official said.

Mon, 02 Jun, 2003 - 01:00

Omer Farooq, Hyderabad, India

Temperatures rose as high as 118.2 degrees Fahrenheit and meteorologists promised no relief from the heat wave for another two days in Andhra Pradesh state, the state's chief relief official, D.C. Roshaiah, said on Saturday.

Last year, a heat wave reached 122F and killed more than 1,000 people in the state, most of them elderly.

Hundreds of people were being treated for dehydration and sunstroke, complaining of high fevers and vomiting at hospitals in 20 of 23 districts, Roshaiah said.

A total of 795 people have died in the heat wave so far, he said.

“We have run out of fluids to be administered to these patients and authorities are rushing supplies,” said Kotaiah Naik, a hospital administrator.

“We have been receiving at least 40 patients with sunstroke everyday for the past 15 days.”

The heat has also taken a toll on the state’s poultry industry, with at least 1.4 million chickens dying.

Agriculture has also been severely affected because of acute water shortages.

India’s neighbour, Pakistan has also reported deaths linked to the heat wave.

Eleven people are reported to have died in the southern Punjab city of Multan over the last two days, health authorities said yesterday.

“Eleven persons died during the last two days because of extremely hot weather in the southern city of Multan,” district health officer Rashid Ahmed said.

The Meteorological Office recorded a high of 47 degree Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in Multan yesterday.

A 35-year-old toy vendor and a two-year-old boy were among those who died, Ahmed said.

Last week, 14 people were killed by the heatwave when temperatures rose to 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit), Ahmed said.

“So far we have recorded over 40 cases of death due to hot weather during the past 10 days in Punjab and southern Sindh province,” Shahid Rao, general secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association said.