No End in Sight: Hospitals Overwhelmed as India’s Heat Wave Death Toll Tops 1,826

Editor’s Note: Surely this has nothing to do with geoengineering officially moving out of the laboratory this year…

Hospitals in India are struggling to cope with an influx of victims of a blistering heat wave that has claimed nearly 1,800 lives in just over a week. Hundreds of people – mainly from the poorest sections of society – die at the height of summer every year in India but this year’s figures are unusually high. In southern Andhra Pradesh – by far the worst-hit state – 1020 people have died since May 18, more than double the number of heat-related deaths for the whole of last year. In neighboring Telangana, where temperatures hit 48 degrees Celsius over the weekend, 340 people have died from the heat recently compared to 31 in the whole of last year. “Heat wave conditions in 2015 so far have been of a shorter duration, yet with a higher death toll,” said the Centre for Science and Environment’s Arjuna Srinidhi on Thursday.

“This could be due to the sudden change in temperatures after a prolonged wet February and March that had kept the temperatures cool.” Hospitals in New Delhi, where top temperatures have soared to 45 degrees, are struggling to cope with the fallout. “Hospitals are overflowing with heatstroke victims,” said Ajay Lekhi, president of the Delhi Medical Association. “Patients are complaining of severe headache and dizziness. They are also showing symptoms of delirium,” he added. The surge in demand for electricity from air conditioners led to power cuts in parts of Delhi, exacerbating the misery. Large queues formed outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, one of Delhi’s largest government-run hospitals, where women clutched plastic water bottles and packets of mango juice.

(read more at The Extinction Protocol)