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No longer just pleasant. With heat waves coming in, there are also health risks. Archive image.
1 / 2Photo: Marko Säävälä/TT
A heat wave is rolling in over the country and will bring 30 degrees in some places.
For mainly the elderly and children, the heat can be downright dangerous.
Chief physician Annelie Liljegren explains why and gives advice for dealing with the heat wave.
Ideal sun and heat are nowadays not as obviously positively charged forecasts even in a northern country like Sweden.
Instead, long periods of heat have come to be associated with risks, health hazards and, in the worst case, mortality. During the heat wave in 2018, for example, around 700 people died more than usual in Sweden, according to the Public Health Authority.
This year, meteorologists once again predict an unusually hot summer in Sweden.
TT: In what way can heat be a risk?
Annelie Liljegren, chief physician at Södersjukhuset, gives answers.
– The danger is that the body gets rid of a lot of fluid when it gets hot and you sweat. Then you also find it more difficult to maintain an even and good blood pressure, which in turn can lead to damage to the kidneys. The risk is that you can then have kidney and heart failure, and faint, she says.
Small children sensitive
Since the elderly generally have poorer heart and kidney function, the heat can be life-threatening for them, and they are more easily affected by heat stroke. But even small children are particularly sensitive to the heat, according to Annelie Liljegren.
TT: What are the warning signs that a parent should pay attention to?
– When the child looks tired and droopy, has gray eyes and may not eat or play in the same way as usual, says Annelie Liljegren.
Then it is important to give the child fluids, preferably not through sweet drinks, but in the form of water or liquid substitutes, she urges.
Even for healthy young adults, the heat can become a health risk.
– If you get a little dizzy or have a fast pulse, the first warning sign is that you should rest for a while and drink fluids, says Annelie Liljegren.
Never trapped in the car
Something you should never ever do, even for short moments, is to leave children trapped in a hot car, she warns.
– It is life-threatening because the temperature in a car quickly rises to 40-50 degrees.
FACTS
How to handle the heat
Extreme heat can be dangerous for anyone, but especially dangerous for certain groups, such as the elderly, the chronically ill, young children, pregnant women and people taking certain medications that affect the body’s ability to adjust body heat and fluid balance.
According to SMHI, a heat wave is five days with a temperature of at least 25.0 degrees.
In the event of a heat wave, the advice from Annelie Liljegren, chief physician, Södersjukhuset, is to:
Stay indoors.
Drink water often.
Close the blinds and ventilate in the evening and at night, not during the day.
Pay attention to warning signs of heatstroke: such as increased heart rate and breathing rate, dizziness, abnormal fatigue.
Dry mouth and decreased urine output can also be signs of dehydration.
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