The continuing heatwave in Uttar Pradesh has led to a surge in deaths at the Ballia district hospital, with 14 new fatalities reported within 24 hours on Sunday. This brings the total death toll to 68 over a four-day period, from June 15 to June 18.

Authorities from Lucknow have launched an investigation into the alarming spike in deaths, while District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar has stated that there is currently no “solid evidence” linking the fatalities to the high temperatures.

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On Saturday, Dr Diwakar Singh was removed from his position as the chief medical superintendent of the district hospital by the state government. This action was taken due to his “careless statement on deaths caused by the heatwave without having proper information.”

The situation at the Ballia district hospital has been concerning. On June 15, a total of 154 people were admitted, with 23 fatalities. The following day, 137 patients were admitted, resulting in 20 deaths. On June 17, 11 deaths were reported, and on June 18, the hospital admitted 178 patients, with 14 fatalities recorded.

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Dr Jayant Kumar, the Chief Medical Officer of Ballia, assured, “The heat levels are high, because of which our indoor patients have increased. A total of 178 patients were admitted at the district hospital on Sunday. We are watching them and giving them care. In 24 hours, 14 deaths have happened of people who were suffering with different diseases because of which they have died. All kinds of arrangements have been made like medicines, staff and coolers,”

On being asked about the patients not being able to get beds at the hospital on Sunday evening, Dr Kumar stated, “That is not the situation. The situation is totally under control and there is no issue. Because of patients who are old, the situation has worsened.”

Regarding the cause of the sudden rise in deaths, the CMO said, “A probe committee has come and they are investigating the incidents. They visited the district hospital yesterday (Sunday). They inspected the hospital and met patients. Samples of drinking water, blood and urine are being sent for investigations. Our teams have gone to areas where the majority of patients have come from. They will submit a report and then the situation will be clear.”

A K Singh, director of communicable diseases and a member of the government’s probe team, highlighted that the symptoms reported by the deceased patients are being examined. While acknowledging the heatwave as a potential factor, Singh emphasised that confirmation is pending as there have been no similar reports from other regions where temperatures have been even higher.

“The first thing we are looking at is the time in which the admitted patients’ conditions started getting serious… 1-2 days, 3-4 days or just 1-2 hours. The second thing is that if they were getting serious in 1-2 days, then what was the reason? All the patients complained they first had pain in the chest, followed by fever and then problems in breathing. We will investigate these symptoms. The mode of the investigation will be blood and urine tests. We will try to submit our report at the earliest so that we can reach a conclusion,” he said.

“The patients are mostly from two blocks. We will visit the place and take the history of the patients. We will also collect the water samples of the place there to check if anything is wrong with the drinking water. We will send the sample for testing… More than 60 per cent of the patients currently admitted are of other diseases, like kidney issues, heart and blood pressure. The young patients have a history of chest pain and problems in breathing,” he added.

“There have been no such complaints in nearby districts, but only in Ballia. Also, the first complaint of the patient in a heatwave is fever and loss of consciousness. But in this case, the patient first complained of chest pain and breathing problems and fever later. Also, the fever is not as high as it should be in the case of a heatwave,” he assured.