[12/June/2009]

ADEN, June 12 (Saba) – Two people have died and others suffered fainting over the last two days as a result of a second worst heat wave in the last three years to hit Yemen's port city of Aden.

One of the dead was Ahmed al-Furiakh, an elderly man aged 50, who had been struggling in the high temperature. Al-Furaikh died in the district of Dar Saada and a second man died in the district of Sheikh Othman when the heat helped his health condition worsen, after he had been suffering blood pressure.

Local sources said many people, most of them women, suffered fainting after the temperature reached highs in noon in most of the city areas last week.

Power problems such as persistent cut-offs helped worsen the situation in Aden leading to discomfort among the patients in Aden, the city which is witnessing a high temperature associated with high humidity.

The electrical current is cut off five times a day, affecting those people with dangerous diseases.

Even though the electrical current is available, air conditioners have become insufficient to ease the heat wave amid high prices of electricity.

Two years ago, a strong heat wave hit the city, claiming the lives of 24 people, most of them were elderly people.

The deaths took place in two days.

Medical officials in the city say the city hospitals receive large numbers of patients in summer when the temperature scores highs.

Most of the affected are those with diabetics, blood pressure and thyroid, because they are easily affected by the change of the temperature.

On reasons behind the high temperatures, a geologist says that all human activities including, a random filling up of beaches and ongoing project construction at the beaches and empty areas which represent a suitable pass for air as well as ongoing operations of mountain digging, lead to the heat waves.

FR
Saba