Heat wave highlights threat of heat-related illness: How to stay safe
(CBS) Get used to it. That's what scientists are saying about hot weather, as a deadly heat wave continues to grip the nation. A new study from Stanford University says global climate change will lead permanently to unusually hot summers by the middle of the century, the Associated Press reported.
And as temperatures rise, so do health risks.
"It's a real public health issue," Dr. Michael Stern, co-director of the geriatric emergency medicine fellowship at New York City's New York-Presbyterian Hospital, told ABC News. "Between the 1980s and early 2000s, there were more heat-related deaths than deaths from all natural disasters combined."
Seniors are at particular risk for heat-related illnesses, but so are infants and children, as well as adults with heart disease and other medical conditions. Soaring temperatures cause a variety of heat-related disorders, including sunburn, rashes, cramps, and heat exhaustion, which is marked by pale skin, heavy sweating, headaches, nausea, and fatigue.
But the most worrisome heat-related disorder is heat stroke. It occurs when sweating isn't enough to keep body temperature from rising - and rise it does, often to 106 degrees or higher within 15 minutes. Warning signs include dizziness, nausea, confusion, throbbing headache, elevated body temperature, rapid pulse, and skin that's red, hot and dry (no sweating).
See any of these warning signs? Seek immediate medical attention. If you have to wait for an ambulance to arrive, use the time to get the victim to a cool, shady area. Cool the victim any way you can - whether it's spraying him/her with water or immersing him/her into a tub of cool water or wrapping him/her in wet sheet and fanning vigorously.
Fluids? Don't give them. If there is vomiting, turn the victim on his/her side to make sure the airway remains open.
If you think all this sounds alarmist, think again. According to AP, Stanford scientists Noah S. Diffenbaugh and Martin Scherer said that by the middle of this century, the coolest summers will be hotter than the hottest ones of the 1900s.
Stay cool.
The CDC has more on staying safe in hot weather.