Heat waves when in hospital

Deaths due to high temperatures occur so quickly that patients do not have time to be admitted to hospital. This is why prevention campaigns are necessary to try and reduce the negative effects of the heat on health. This is pointed out in new research undertaken at the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Maranon, Madrid.

Research published in the recent issue of the European Journal of Public Health gives an analysis of admissions to the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Maranon, Madrid between 1995 and 2000.

In the hospitals they talk about a heat wave when the daily maximum temperature exceeds 36o C. One of the results obtained in the study is that the temperature at which mortality rises sharply (36.5o C), coincides with the temperature at which a drastic increase in the number of hospital admissions occurs.

Julio Díaz, a researcher at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and one of the two authors of the study, explains to SINC the importance of this type of work from the preventive point of view: "We must not wait until heat waves occur. It is extremely important to take action between 48 and 72 hours beforehand, particularly where the most vulnerable groups are concerned".

The researchers studied 49,572 admissions, the causes of which were catalogued as "organic causes", circulatory and breathing disorders, according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). This analysis emphasises the importance of people getting used to the local conditions.

"The high temperatures increase the number of platelets and red blood cells, blood viscosity and cholesterol level during thermal stress, as well as mortality caused by cerebral and coronary thrombosis", Julio Díaz points out to SINC.

These quantitative studies have corroborated that deaths due to high temperatures occur so quickly that patients do not have time to be admitted to hospital, which is much more the case in those deaths resulting from circulatory diseases.

According to the experts, the explanation is in the actual characteristics of these types of diseases. "In a short period of time these types of diseases have fatal consequences to health. For this reason, patients die before being admitted to hospital. Another possible explanation is related to the non availability of beds in the hospitals, which could foster these fatal consequences", concludes the researcher.

Currently, the majority of European cities have prevention and early warning plans for extreme temperatures in order to avoid deaths, look after the people affected by the heat wave and activate emergency plans in the hospitals.