Sunny Spain
EXTREMADURA — Spain is known in Europe as a country that has plenty of sunshine and hot summer days. People travel to Spain from all over Europe and beyond to enjoy its hazy, lazy weather, but there is a darker side to the heat too.
So far this year, and this is really the first hot month of the year, three people have died from the heat in Spain. It might be expected that this can often happen with older people, but one of them was only 24 years old.
The young man was actually from Portugal, but he was working in Villar del Rey, a village in Badajoz province in Extremadura in southwest Spain. He worked at a purifying plant in the village, and one evening last week after work while playing football he said he felt unwell. He died from the effects of sunstroke about an hour later.
The other two victims were older. One was a woman aged 55 who died in Virgen Macarena Hospital in the city of Sevilla to the south of Extremadura. She had been taken in to the hospital a few days earlier because of multiple organ failure brought on by the excessive heat, coupled with the lack of air-conditioning in her home.
The third victim was from the city of Cáceres in Cáceres province, Extremadura. He was an 88 year-old man who lived alone. His family found him suffering from a dangerously high body temperature. He was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed as having sunstroke. He died later that night with multiple organ failure again the cause of death.
Health officials are reminding everyone that the very high temperatures that can be experienced in summer can be fatal if they are not respected and the necessary precautions taken.
Spain is not the only country to experience very high summer temperatures, of course, but it is one of the most popular holiday spots for people who mainly live in the cooler more northern countries of Europe. They are especially at risk as they usually do not have the necessary experience of very hot temperatures.
It is when the temperatures rise above 41 degrees Celsius that people are especially at risk. The body can struggle and even fail to regulate its internal temperatures and organ failure and death can result.
Dizziness, a change in behaviour, headaches, nausea and dehydration are among the symptoms of sunstroke. It is near the coast that the risk is at its highest, rather than inland, as the coastal regions have a much higher humidity level which acts to amplify the problem. Extremadura, where three sunstroke deaths have occurred so far this year, is well inland, however.
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