Heat wave to continue

The ongoing heat wave would continue for few more days while people in the capital and across the country continued suffering from blistering heat as the mercury remained above 36C and went up to 39.5C on Friday.
The heat wave brought miseries to people who work outdoor and patients with heat related diseases, including diarrhoea, dehydration, nausea, heat exhaustion and viral fever, increased at hospitals during Ramadan.
Met Office said that the ‘mild to moderate heat wave’, which is sweeping over Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna divisions and Dinajpur and Noakhali regions, might continue.
The day’s highest temperature was recorded at 39.5C in Rajshahi followed by 39C in Chuadanga, 38.9C in Jashore, 38.7C at Ishwardi, 37.2C in Khulna, 36.5C in Faridpur and 36C at Maizdee in Noakhali. 
In Dhaka, the day’s highest temperature was 36.2C. 
This is the second heat wave in Bangladesh in less than a month. It began in the past week after cyclone Fani that mainly hit India had crossed Bangladesh.
Met official AKM Nazmul Haque told New Age on Friday that the mild to moderate heat wave might continue for few more days, but raining after May 12 might reduce the temperature.
Doctors said that as the heat related patients were flooding into hospitals because of the hot and humid weather, people should be more careful not to be victims of heat.
They advised people to avoid outdoor activities under blistering sun and take safe water, watery foods and seasonal fruits and juice and avoid stale foods, roadside iftar and foods.
As a heat wave began in early April, the ICDDR,B witnessed an increased number of diarrhoea patients.
The hospital treated over 24,000 diarrhoea patients in April. Last week, on an average hospitalisation rate was a little below 700 patients per day.
Dhaka Shishu Hospital also witnessed increased number of patients with diarrhoea and viral fever.
Every day, about 1,500 children are being treated at the outpatient department only alongside over 600 patients in the indoor services, doctors said.
‘At least 20 per cent of patients are suffering from heat related diseases including diarrhoea, viral fever, chicken pox and coughing,’ Dhaka Shishu Hospital director Shafi Ahmed Muaaz said.
He advised people not to bring children outdoor and to provide them with more water, watery foods and seasonal fruits and juice.
Dhaka Medical College principal Khan Abul Kalam Azad said that the hot and humid weather brought increased number of heat related patients to the hospital emergency, outpatient and inpatient departments.
‘Patients, including children, with diarrhoea, dehydration, nausea and fever increased in recent days due to heat wave,’ he said.
Khan Abul Kalam Azad, also a medicine specialist, advised people to avoid frequent outdoor activities and bring umbrella while going outdoor to protect from the scorching sun.
He also advised taking more water and watery foods, juice. He also advised that oral saline should also be taken in case of excessive sweating.
People who are fasting should take at least one litre extra water or watery foods and juice after breaking the fast, he advised.
He further advised people to wear full sleeve shirt while going for outdoor activities and not to take cooling, bathing and cold water soon after outdoor activities.
The heat wave brought sufferings to the working people especially who work outdoor.
Rickshaw pullers, agriculture labourers who are now harvesting boro, day labourers and construction workers are the worst victims of the heat wave.
Farmer Abdul Halim of Piprail village at Phultala upazila in Khulna, one of the divisions experiencing the heat wave for past few days, told New Age that their labourers could not work in the field because of to scorching heat.
‘Labourers need to take rest after working a while…harvesting becomes difficult because of the hot weather,’ he said.
Al-Amin, a rickshaw puller at Kathalbagan, who was taking a nap on a roadside tea stall, said the hot weather coupled with the Ramadan fasting hit the rickshaw pullers hard.
He said they were limiting their rickshaw pulling as they needed rest after a trip while their income went down as people were not frequent in outdoor activities.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net