Weekly First-aid Topic: Measures for preventing heat stroke in hot summer
From:Beijing Municipal Health Commission
Date:06/12/2020

  Recently, Beijing has entered summer with continuous high temperature. It  is necessary to prevent heat stroke in summer. Heat stroke is a series of  syndromes that occur when the body's thermoregulatory function fails in a  high-temperature environment. Under normal circumstances, the body's heat  production and dissipation are in a dynamic balance. When the surrounding  temperature is lower than the body temperature, the body dissipates heat mainly  by radiation. When the surrounding temperature is higher than or close to the  body temperature, the body dissipates heat through the evaporation of sweat.  However, evaporation is greatly affected by air humidity. The higher the  humidity is, the less sweat people have. Therefore, under the conditions of high  temperature and humidity, and low wind speed, the body's ability to regulate  body temperature will be disturbed, which can easily lead to a series of  uncomfortable reactions and heat stroke. Heat stroke can be divided into mild  and severe heat stroke. Mild heatstroke is manifested as dizziness, headache,  flushing, thirst, excessive sweating, fatigue, palpitations, rapid pulse,  inattention, and uncoordinated movements. Severe heat stroke includes heat  cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat shoots. The onset of heat exhaustion is rapid,  and patients often have symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting, cramps, fainting,  etc. Patients should drink cold and non-alcoholic beverages, take a cold bath or  wipe the body with cold water, turn on the air conditioner and change to light  clothes. If symptoms are severe, accompanied by heart disease or high blood  pressure, you should seek medical attention immediately. Radiation sickness has  various manifestations, such as nausea, extremely high body temperature (oral  temperature above 39.5 degrees Celsius), red and hot skin with no sweat, and  fear of cold. The patient should be moved to a cool place. It is advised to wipe  the body with cold water or used other methods to quickly cool the patient.  Patient should not drink much water. It is suggested to take a small amount of  glucose saline and dial 120 quickly.