Exposure to extreme cold may cause life-threatening emergency

Islamabad : Exposure to extreme cold for longer period of time after the significant fall in mercury in this part of the country and severe cold weather conditions in hilly areas around Margalla and Murree hills may cause life-threatening emergency particularly in case of incidence of hypothermia.

Hypothermia is a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature. It occurs due to prolonged exposure to cold temperatures in cold weather or immersion into cold water particularly in extreme cold weather conditions.

Studies reveal that when your body temperature drops, your heart, nervous system and other organs become unable to work normally. Left untreated, hypothermia can eventually lead to complete failure of your heart and respiratory system and to death.

The normal body temperature is around 98.6 degree Fahrenheit (37 degree Centigrade). Hypothermia occurs as your body temperature passes below 95 degree Fahrenheit (35 degree Centigrade). It may result in a dangerously low body temperature that can even drop to 27 degree centigrade in severe cases of medical emergency.

The public sector healthcare facilities in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have already started receiving cases with varying degrees of hypothermia, said Deputy Director at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Dr. Waseem Ahmed Khawaja while talking to ‘The News’.

He said every year in extreme cold weather conditions like the one prevailing at the time, the healthcare facilities receive significant number of patients with hypothermia majority of which are below 12 years of age or above 60 years of age.

It is important that in Pakistan, there is no concrete data about deaths from hypothermia but according to estimates, hypothermia causes not less than 150 deaths every winter, the number of cases reported in cities across the country. Most of these deaths were reported in homeless population that freeze to death in the freezing or subzero winter cold and snow.

According to Dr. Muhammad Haroon, Consultant Intensive Care Medicine at PIMS, it is time to create awareness among public on what problems the exposure to extreme cold can cause and how to avoid these life-threatening conditions. Hypothermia is common in males and the elderly. Three of hypothermia's main causes are alcohol consumption that makes one feel warmer while increasing heat loss, poverty that results in inability to afford adequate heating and water immersion, he said.

He added that primary treatments for hypothermia are methods to warm the body back to a normal temperature. Shivering is likely to be the first thing one notices as the temperature starts to drop because it is the body’s automatic defense against cold temperature — an attempt to warm itself, he said.

He explained that the rapid drop in body’s core temperature can cause effects such as confusion and strange behaviors like clumsiness and fatigue. Death generally occurs due to complete failure of your heart and nervous system, he said.

Those suffering from unconsciousness or other symptoms of severe hypothermia should immediately be moved to a hospital for proper supportive care. Hypothermia is a life threatening emergency and should be promptly recognized and treated. Aged persons and children should avoid going outside homes in extreme weather conditions from 9:00 pm to 7:00 am when the temperature falls to below one degree centigrade. People should be aware of the fact that hypothermia affects all systems of the body leading to unconsciousness and drowsiness that may result in coma or even death if left untreated, said Dr. Haroon.