Meeting health emergencies arising from heat waves

In recent years, heat waves generated by various atmospheric events including the impacts of climate change have caused temperatures during the summer months to rise abnormally well above 400Celsius in different parts of the country. As a result, adoption of special measures to protect public health has become a necessity. Notably, this year, since April 19, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) issued heat alerts six times so far raising the high temperature-related public health concern to a new level. At the highest risk are children, old people and pregnant women. To meet this public health emergency, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has recently come up with the National Guidelines on heat-related illnesses. Prepared with the support of UNICEF, the guidelines launched Sunday last aim to protect children and vulnerable populations including pregnant women from heat-related health risks.
It is a commendable effort on the part of the DGHS, or the health ministry for that matter as it has finally come to realise and, gratifyingly so, the danger that extreme weather temperatures pose, especially to the highly vulnerable segments of the population. Now for the primary healthcare approach to work, what would be important is to have an army of health professionals especially trained to handle heat-induced health emergencies. As expected under a primary healthcare regime, the health workers should be available and ready to reach the heat stroke victims at the union and village levels. Most importantly, the members of the general public would have to be made aware of the symptoms that heat stress gives rise to and seek support of the health professionals/workers to address those.
In that case, mere dissemination of the heat-related health guidelines as it is going to be done, as reported, through different publicity organs of the government including the ministries, the mass media channels and grassroots organisations will not be enough. The public's experience with Covid-related health guidelines can be recalled. So, the challenge before the DGHS will be to take the guidelines right on the people's doorstep.
As could be learnt, prepared with the help of experts, the framework of the guidelines will be able to address heat-related health risks that involve preterm births. Reportedly, for the rise of every 10 Centigrade of temperature, the odds of a premature birth rise by 5.0 per cent. Compared to normal times, the odds of premature delivery increases by 16 per cent during heat waves, say experts. With one of the highest rates of premature delivery in the world at 16.2 per cent, the role of appropriate health guidelines is crucial. A UNICEF estimate says that, at present, one in every three children are exposed to the climate change-related risks including high heat waves. By 2050, about 99 per cent (a staggering 35.5 million) of Bangladeshi children will be exposed to high heat wave risks. Notably, in the face of extreme heat waves, the government had to close schools. So, the secondary and higher education directorate's idea of integrating climate education into the educational curricula would definitely be a step forward.
Alongside implementation of its heat-related health guidelines, the government needs to earnestly work for adoption of all necessary measures leading to protection of women, children and other segments of the population exposed to the severe impacts of climate change.