India’s Heat Wave: How Extreme Heat Ravages the Body
Furnace-like conditions can overwhelm the body's natural cooling system, resulting in injury and death.
More than 1,800 people have died in one of the worst heat waves in India’s recent history. Temperatures nearing 122°F (50°C) melted roads in New Delhi and scorched crops in the fields. It proved especially deadly in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where at least 1,700 died in the past week.
May is consistently India’s hottest month, but, even so, temperatures shot far above normal. In the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh, daytime temperatures rose more than 40°F (7°C) higher than average, according to India’s meteorological department director B.P. Yadav.
Aftab Ahmad, an internal medicine expert at Apollo Health City, a hospital complex in Hyderabad, said there could be many reasons for the heavy death toll. “The
