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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
19 Die from Heat Stroke in Mexicali
 Sandra Dibble - Union-Tribune
| | Mexicali's summer temperatures are the highest in Mexico, and have been known to rise above 120 degrees in summer months. |
Nineteen people, most of them poor, have died due to heat stroke in Mexicali since June 30, the medical examiner reported yesterday.
The deaths came as residents of this desert region confront temperatures expected to peak at 118 degrees today, the highest temperatures so far this month. Combined with humidity from the Gulf of California, the effect can be deadly to those who don't take precautions.
The heat stroke victims are all men and range in age from 26 to 80, said Dr. Francisco Acuña Campa, director of the state medical examiner's office in Mexicali. All but one, a possible migrant who died west of the city off the road to Tijuana, have been identified. The victims were mainly local residents and included street vendors and homeless people.
One was a tourist from Mexico City, José Meroño Solórzano, 40, who died during a photographic expedition at the foot of El Centinela, a mountain outside Mexicali.
Acuña said some of the deaths had other contributing causes, such as alcohol and drug use, but said medical experts from his office determined that heat stroke was the cause of death.
The exact figures have been the subject of some dispute. Though Acuña said yesterday that all 19 died of heat stroke, the Baja California Health Department said in a news bulletin that it could confirm through death certificates and accompanying autopsies that only eight deaths resulted from the high temperatures, and that the victims were elderly and included one female.
Health department officials in Mexicali did not clarify the discrepancy. But Acuña said “there is no contradiction,” as not all heat-related deaths pass through the health department, and some victims are brought directly to the medical examiner's office by police investigators.
Acuña said high temperatures have claimed more heat-related victims than last year, when his office tallied 12 heat-related deaths for the months of July and August.
Health officials have been urging residents to drink liquids, wear hats and light-colored clothing, cover up windows, avoid street foods and perform outdoor activities early in the day.
Rafael García Cueto, a meteorology researcher at the Autonomous University of Baja California, said Mexicali's weather conditions are not worse than in previous years, but high humidity can compound the effect of high temperatures. Mexicali's summer temperatures are the highest in Mexico, and have been known to rise above 120 degrees in summer months. |
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