Hundreds have fallen victim to hyperthermia and dozens have died in temperatures as high as 44 degrees Celsius in and near Mandalay in late April, according to aid workers in local social welfare groups.
A member of a Mandalay-based social welfare network said his team had saved around 10 people per day with treatment for heatstroke, but that an even greater number could not be saved and succumbed to the temperatures.
“On many days, 15 people would die. We’d have to rescue around 10 from the heat. These numbers are true for every organization in our network,” said the social welfare officer.
Other members of the same organisation—one of around 200 such humanitarian groups in Mandalay—estimated that at least a dozen people were dying each day and well over 100 had died in the last two weeks of April. Most the victims were poor. . .
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