Japan adds "most severe" category to deadly heatstroke warning index
Tokyo, July 10 (Hibya) - Medical experts in Japan will add the "most severe" category to the existing heatstroke index amid warnings that extreme heat is straining medical services and causing damage to public health comparable to a "natural disaster".
The Japanese Society of Acute Medicine announced that it would add a fourth category to the three-level classification later this year to reduce deaths from heatstroke.
The announcement came in the same week that authorities in Tokyo announced that six people had died from the effects of temperatures soaring to 40C in some parts of the country, well above the 35C threshold categorised as "extreme heat".
The association said the number of deaths from heat exhaustion had risen from a few hundred a year two decades ago to about 1,500 in 2022.
Stating that the rising number of deaths indicates that heatstroke now poses a danger tantamount to a "major natural disaster", the association urged people not to go outside unless necessary.
Albania News Agency
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