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ISLAMABAD: Doctors in Pakistan’s Multan this week urged citizens to be cautious during the ongoing heatwave, as the administration of the city’s largest hospital said it had seen a surge in the number of patients due to extreme temperatures in recent days.

The Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) warned last week that southern districts in Punjab, namely Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan, would experience a heatwave from May 21 to May 27. Authorities in the province ordered schools to remain closed from May 25 to May 31 due to the extreme heat.

Due to climate change, heatwaves are becoming more severe and more frequent. These events, which occur in summer, are caused by slow-moving high pressure systems that lead to long-lasting high temperatures.

“These days, temperatures are already rising, reaching almost 48 to 47 degrees, so patients are coming with mild symptoms,” Dr. Farooq Ahmad, medical director of Nishtar Hospital in Multan, told Reuters.

“In summer, we face two things: one is the heat wave and the other is the diarrhea season. Both basically lead to dehydration, losses and everything.”

Health experts advise citizens to take special precautions against the heat and not to venture outside unnecessarily.

“We are trying our best to educate people coming to the hospital about the dangers of heat stroke,” Dr Ayub Qazi, deputy director of the hospital, told Reuters.

“We tell them not to leave their homes unnecessarily and to cover their heads when they do so.”

Pakistan experienced its first severe heatwave in June 2015, when temperatures reached as high as 49 degrees Celsius in the south of the country. About 2,000 people died of dehydration and heat stroke, most of them in the southern port city of Karachi.

The main impacts of climate change in Pakistan include increasing heat and more heat waves. People there have been exposed to extreme heat in recent years and have experienced some of the highest temperatures in the world. The South Asian country of more than 241 million people is one of the top 10 countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The country has also recently been affected by unexpected rains, flash floods and droughts.

Extreme heat caused by climate change can cause illnesses such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and hyperthermia. It can aggravate certain chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebrovascular diseases, as well as diabetes-related diseases, and can also lead to acute adverse events such as hospitalisations due to stroke or kidney disease.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index, nearly 10,000 Pakistanis died between 1999 and 2018, while the country suffered $3.8 billion in economic losses due to the impacts of climate change. A deadly heatwave that hit Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, the capital of Sindh state, claimed 120 lives in 2015.

In 2022, torrential monsoon rains triggered the most devastating floods in Pakistan’s history, killing around 1,700 people and affecting over 33 million – a staggering number almost equal to the population of Canada. Millions of homes, tens of thousands of schools and thousands of kilometres of roads and railways still need to be rebuilt.