40 suffering from heat wave die at Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district hospital in three days

LUCKNOW: Two teams of the health department were rushed to Ballia on Saturday after 40 patients, who had been admitted to the district hospital due to heat stroke-related complications, died over the past three days.

As per reports, though the deceased were from varied localities, a high number of deaths sent the health department into a tizzy. Reportedly, 23 patients died on Thursday, 11 on Friday and another six on Saturday.

The health department has rushed a team under additional director (health) Azamgarh Division Dr OP Tewari, which is camping in Ballia to assess the situation. Director General (health) Renu Srivastava has rushed a separate team from Lucknow to conduct a probe into the high number of casualties.

Doctors at Ballia district hospital said that most of those who died over the past three days were over 60 years of age and had co-morbid conditions. The average temperature in Ballia, too, has been hovering between 40 and 44 degrees which is several notches above normal.

But what is perturbing for the health officials is that with similar conditions, no neighbouring district like Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur, has reported high numbers of heat wave-related deaths.

Meanwhile, the state government transferred Ballia district hospital’s chief medical superintendent Dr Diwakar Singh to Azamgarh.