What are the people who have the most likely to suffer from heat?
Older people. We live older, but we also live with chronic diseases that are better and better supported. It can be chronic bronchitis, heart failure, or even cancer … and these people are obviously more at risk of being weakened by episodes of heat.
Another category of people at risk is people who have neuropsychiatric disorders, because they are not necessarily aware of the risk, and because their medication can make their adaptation to this heat or dehydration is more difficult.
And among these risky pathologies, are you also in respiratory diseases, cerebricular?
Exactly, and cardiovascular. Everything that is kidney problems, cardiac decompensated … The follow -up of these people must be reinforced, which, most of the time, is the case. There has also been progress in terms of occupational medicine, for those working in industries that produce a lot of heat, the risk is particularly high.
There is also a message to convey in relation to sports competitions, mass sports, etc. I saw races that are done in the heat of the heat wave. If it is done, you really have to make sure to inform participants about the dangers to whom they are exposed.
You still have to be inspired by the southern countries. In Valence, between noon and 5 p.m., there are rarely people running under 40 ° C.
With us, people say they are in good health, and therefore that they can expose themselves. However, you really have to be careful. And if we do it, you must take care to hydrate and be wary of direct exposure to the sun.
Tips to follow to avoid hot blows at home?
Close the curtains, rest, be careful where you sleep so that it is as tempered as possible … All that is things that work well.
How do you attribute the death of a heat to heat?
There are specific clinical tables. But the most obvious cause is malignant hyperthermia, heat stroke … But often, as for covid, the cause of death is multifactorial.
How do you prepare to face a heat wave?
We prepare to manage an important influx of victims of the same pathology.
Edito | New heat wave: enjoy the sun, but without closing your eyes
Territorial disparities from Flanders to Wallonia
Are we all equal to the heat and its effects that we live in Flanders, Brussels or Wallonia? The question can arise when you know that, during the last heat wave, Sciensano noted an excess of mortality in in Wallonia. “There was indeed a higher excess mortality in Wallonia during the last period of heat. On the other hand, this is not structural, we do not see it systematically during heat waves, so we cannot draw conclusions from it.”
For Lara Kotlar, a spokesperson for Aviq, these variations are linked to the socio-demographic aspect of Wallonia. Certain parameters such as “the health and precariousness of certain people, more dilapidated and therefore less well adapted infrastructure or older and less well -insulated houses” can have a role in these variations in figures. But it insists that – as in Flanders or Brussels – the municipalities and the CPAS also carry out actions against heat, “by putting water points available to more fragile people who are on the street or by organizing maraudes to ensure that everyone is fine.”