Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Inside India’s first emergency room to fight heat crisis
Delhi usually experiences the summer heat from May to July. During this
season the temperatures rise to a maximum of 39°C or higher around the end of
May. This year, the capital of India recorded the highest-ever temperature of
over 50°C on May 26, and the prolonged heatwave has been pushing daily temperatures
over 40C ever since. While many people still think a heatwave is just an
enduring act of nature, the temperatures are way beyond the range that humans
can live in, especially with high humidity and in a congested area. In Dehli, a
third of the residents live in substandard and congested housing or slums where
adequate cooling is rare. Also, so many workers spend most of the day outside, like
construction workers, rickshaw drivers, and street vendors. As a result, so many
people have suffered from heatstroke, which occurs when the body can no longer
control its temperature and the body's temperature rises rapidly to over 40C,
the sweating mechanism fails, and the body is unable to cool down. At that
point, the body needs to be cooled ASAP and in an emergency, the patient might
be put into icy water. This year, hospitals have accepted more heatstroke
patients than ever before.
Read the article and learn about how severe Delhi’s heatwave has been this season.
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