Japan adds ‘most severe’ category to its heatstroke index amid deadly summer

Hospitals are stretched to their limits during unseasonably early heatwave, as medical authorities liken public health risk to a natural disaster'

Medical experts in Japan are to add a most severe" category to the current heatstroke index, amid warnings that the extreme heat is straining medical services and causing damage to public health comparable to that in a natural disaster".

The Japanese Association for Acute Medicine said it would add a fourth category to the three-level classification later this year in an attempt to reduce deaths from heatstroke.