The state health department has published a few symptoms that should alert people about possibilities of heat-related ailments.
Nausea and vomiting, headache, throbbing pain in the head, muscle cramps or weakness in muscles, rapid breathing, redness and dryness of face and the body temperature reaching 104 degrees Fahrenheit are some of the symptoms that have been mentioned.
The department posted the symptoms on X on Friday morning.
Bengal health services director Siddhartha Niyogi said the advisory was meant to alert people.
“Common people should know these symptoms. The heat and temperature has risen so much that common people should be aware of certain symptoms,” Niyogi said on Friday.
Some of the symptoms mentioned in the advisory precede heatstroke. If people become cautious and take steps to cool down, it could avert a progression to heatstroke, said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, an infectious disease specialist at Peerless Hospital.
“All the symptoms will come under the broad range of heat injury, heat exhaustion and heatstroke,” said Bhattacharya.
Two of the symptoms mentioned in the health department’s X post are definite signs of heatstroke, he said. These are the body temperature rising above 104 degrees Fahrenheit and fainting after exposure to heat.
“Anyone with these symptoms should immediately see a doctor or go to a hospital,” Bhattacharya said.
The health department’s post, too, says anyone suffering from these two symptoms must visit a health centre or a hospital.
The post also says one should visit a hospital if a muscle cramp persists for an hour or more and the other symptoms keep worsening.
Calcutta has been in the grip of above-normal temperatures for at least the past fortnight. The maximum temperature recorded on Thursday was 41.6 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal.
On Friday, the maximum was 39.7, four degrees above normal.
The extreme heat has triggered calls from scientists that the city’s authorities should prepare a heat management plan. Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the executive director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said the health department’s post mentioning the symptoms was an “important step”.
“Tackling health emergencies is an important part of the heat management plan. As this comes from the state health department, it will be taken seriously. It will alert people about the possible health risks during very high heat conditions and heatwaves,” said Roy Chowdhury.
Scientists earlier told Metro that such extreme heat will continue to recur and
the authorities should take steps to make the community more resilient to such situations.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations panel, said in its sixth assessment report (AR6 Synthesis Report) published last year that “human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850-1900 in 2011-2020”.
The report said: “Global surface temperature has increased faster since 1970 than in any other 50-year period over at least the last 2000 years.”
Some people also said merely posting some symptoms on X or issuing an advisory may not be enough. The government should find ways to disseminate the information to a greater number of people.