While, according to the weather forecast, we are about to experience a new episode of extreme heat, the Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Marisol Touraine, has drawn up this morning a first health assessment of the heatwave episode which affected France between June 29 and July 5.
During this week when 51 departments were placed on heat wave vigilance, 700 additional deaths – or 7% more – were recorded compared to the average observed at the same time of the year without a heat wave episode. This excess mortality was, this time, limited if we compare the figures with the scorching episodes of 2003 (we recorded 15,000 additional deaths, ie 55% more) or 2006 (with 2,100 additional deaths, or 9%).
The minister had asked the hospitals most in need to maintain their medical reception capacity to be able to accommodate all patients who would need to be hospitalized. An increase in emergency room visits and consultations has been noted but, as the minister underlined, “the services were not overcrowded”. In total, 3,580 heat-related emergency visits were recorded, three times more than in the same period without a heat wave.
“56% of people who went through emergency rooms linked to heat were hospitalized. These hospitalizations linked to heat reached 76% among those over 75 years old” underlined Marisol Touraine.
More than 1,460 heat-related consultations were recorded by the doctors of “SOS Médecins”, ie ten times more than over an equivalent period without a heat wave episode.
“All age groups were concerned by these consultations, but particularly children under the age of 15”.
Finally, the increase in the overall activity of SAMU-centers 15 in the departments with orange vigilance was of the order of 30 to 40% on average. As for the telephone platform for information on the heat wave, which had been activated on June 25, it recorded 2,500 calls.
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