DHAKA: A devastating heatwave gripping Sindh for several days has taken a toll of at least 136 people in the province.

Most of them were pronounced dead at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), officials said on Sunday.

The officials said the city would not see any let-up on Monday when temperatures are expected to go up to 44 degree Celsius.

They said 85 of the people who had suffered heatstroke were either brought dead or died in JPMC. Thirty people died in the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) on Saturday night and Sunday, nine in Lyari General Hospital and six in the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK).

“Some 85 people have died since late Saturday night,” Dr Seemin Jamali, joint executive director of JPMC, told Dawn.

Most of them were men aged 50 or more.

“They were brought to the hospital unconscious, suffering from high grade fever with pulse hardly visible and blood pressure barely noticeable,” said the JPMC official.

Many patients told their doctors that they had collapsed suddenly during the sizzling day and suffered extreme breathing problem.

Dr Salma Kauser, senior director (medical and health) at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, which oversees all KMC hospitals, said 20 people died in ASH on Sunday. Seven people were brought dead on late Saturday late and the cause of death was ascertained hours later.

Of the 20 people, 13 were brought dead to the ASH and seven died during treatment, said Dr Kauser.

Six women and five children were among the dead.

She said that more than 100 people were under treatment in various hospitals run by the KMC.

BDST: 0856 HRS, JUNE 22, 2015
BD