The use of emergency care linked to heat has increased in France since the return of high temperatures in August, the France Health Agency France noted on Wednesday, with already more than 100 emergency passes every day, according to data analyzes of days between Friday and Monday.
“The first health impacts observed emphasize that heat is a risk to health, for all age groups,” said the public health agency in a first sanitary assessment on the consequences of the new heat wave.
It started on August 8, with a large part of France in orange alert, and was clearly accentuated this week, with the passage of multiple departments in red vigilance, in particular in the Southwest.
15-44 year olds more affected
If it is far too early to give an assessment of the effects of this heat wave in terms of death, Public Health France can already measure the use of emergency care for disturbances directly linked to heat: dehydration, hot stroke …
The health authority uses an indicator, known as Icanicule, which is based on both emergency passages in hospitals and consultations with SOS doctors. “Recourse to care (…) have been increasing since August 8, with more than 100 emergency passes and around thirty SOS doctors who observed daily,” notes Public Health France.
Disorders do not only concern older people, the most vulnerable to heat wave. The increase is even the most marked for 15-44 year olds, “mainly for hyperthermia or heat stroke”.
Fewer passages than during the first heat wave of summer
At this level, heat recordings related to heat are far from waiting for their level of July 1, a summit of the previous heat wave, with more than 300 passages across France.
On the ground, professionals attached by AFP have been refrained for the moment to evoke a massive effect of heat, stressing the need to have more perspective.
There is “no saturation of the services or resuscitation linked to the heat wave to date” and “no sensitive mortality observed”, reported Dr. Anne Geffroy-Wernet President of the SNPHARE, National Union of Hospital Practitioners Anesthetists and Réanimators, while the high temperatures should still last several days in the country.