Horror in India: Hundreds of deaths due to encephalitis and heat wave | Chronic

One of the longest and most intense heat waves in India in decades, with temperatures reaching 51 degrees Celsius, has claimed the lives of 36 people since its inception in May, and the government has warned that could happen. continue, the arrival of monsoon rains has been delayed.

High temperatures have become particularly intense in the last decade, as climate change intensified around the world, killing thousands of people and affecting more and more states across the country.

This year, the vast areas of northern and central Asia had averaged more than 50 degrees in recent days. The most affected states are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Anup Kumar Srivastava, an expert from the National Disaster Management Authority in India, said that the number of Indian states affected by heat waves has increased from nine in 2015 to nineteen in 2018 and that this year should reach twenty-three.

"This year, the days of heat wave have also been lengthened and it is not only the temperature during the day, the temperature during the night was also high"he explained.

Mr Srivastava said the imminent storms would cause low temperatures in some areas, but he said that they could resume again before the arrival of the monsoon rains.

This change has affected the poorest regions of the country, where more than a hundred children were killed by an encephalitis epidemic in the state of Bihar, in the middle of the earthquake. is from India, authorities said Tuesday.

The secretary of health of Bihar, Sanjay KumarHe added that 106 children had died and more than 430 other children between the ages of 4 and 10 were being treated in hospitals in Muzaffarpur district, located 80 km north of Patna, the state capital.

Despite the deaths, Kumar said the death rate from encephalitis in children has dropped from 34% to 26.5% since last year.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the disease, which can cause inflammation of the brain, fever and vomiting.

The villagers gathered in front of the Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital in Muzaffarpur, where some of the sick are being treated, to protest the visit of the Chief Minister of Bihar, who they accused of failing to reach only after the addition of death. more than 100.

Leftist political organizations also demonstrated in New Delhi, calling on the Bihar government to do more to prevent what has become an annual epidemic.

"This syndrome of acute encephalitis is recurrent in Bihar and the government has taken no action, and who is dying? It is the poorest children."he said Mariam Dhawale, from the Democratic Association of Indian Women.

Thousands of Indians contract encephalitis, malaria, typhoid and other mosquito – borne diseases every year during the summer rainy season.