With the current high temperatures expected to continue into next month, the island’s Chief Medical Officer has urged Barbadians to take necessary precautions to avoid heat exhaustion and heat stroke.These measures, Dr The Most Honourable Kenneth George said, include staying hydrated, staying indoors where possible, and dressing to stay cool.He explained that the physiology of the body is such that while it could accommodate high temperatures by releasing sweat as a cooling mechanism, if temperatures rose severely the body’s core temperature would also rise.Once that reaches above 40 degrees Celsius for at least 30 minutes, people usually start to experience heat exhaustion which can then lead to heat stroke, Dr George explained.He added that symptoms were usually minor at first but could “scale up” over a short period of time.
