Last week’s heatwave led to an increase in emergency room visits

Last week’s heat wave resulted in the highest number of heat-related emergency room visits of any heat wave in Vermont in the past six years.

There were about 40 heat-related emergency room visits, accounting for 0.5% of all visits last week, according to data collected by the state health department. This is the second highest number of heat-related visits in the last eight years, behind the 2018 heat wave, which lasted twice as long.

At Patrick Leahy International Airport in Burlington, the highest temperature recorded last week was 99 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat index, a measurement that includes humidity to determine the impact of heat on the human body, peaked at 105 F. And since a person’s ability to withstand high temperatures is relative to this what she’s acclimated to, she doesn’t even have it so hot that some Vermonters are having problems.

“We’re starting to see the health impacts of heat in Vermont with heat index values ​​as low as the 80s, before you can think it’s very hot outside,” said Lauren Prinzing, an epidemiologist in environmental health at the state health department. “If it’s relatively cool and then we have a period of hot weather, then our body is not acclimatized. That’s where this sensitivity even to temperatures in the 80s comes in.”

An analysis by the ministry found a variety of factors that increase the danger of a heat wave. The number of emergency room visits increases with the heat index, as well as the previous day’s index: emergency room visits are four times higher when the previous day had a heat index above 95 F compared to a day when the index is 80. F or lower. Other factors include the length of the heat wave and whether temperatures cool at night, allowing homes to cool down between hot periods.

Last week’s heat wave brought together many of these conditions. The previous week had been much cooler. Temperatures did not drop during the night of June 18-19, the two hottest days. On the other hand, the wave lasted only three days, compared to six days of dangerous temperatures in 2018.

During this heat wave, which ran from June 30 to July 5, just over 100 people went to emergency rooms across the state for heat-related illnesses.

“We’ve seen an increase in heat-related illnesses (last week), particularly heat exhaustion and heat stroke,” said Ryan Sexton, chief medical officer at the Regional Hospital. northeastern Vermont. “We also saw exacerbations of other chronic diseases, including asthma, likely heat-related.”

Other hospitals have not seen an increase from the recent heat wave. Alison Davis, medical director of the emergency department at Rutland Regional Medical Center, said in a statement that her hospital has not seen an increase in emergency department volume, attributing the success to the local community following the warnings and to the resources provided by the city to help keep people. in good health.

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