Prepare yourself for summer heat, coronavirus
Planning and prevention are key to protecting against heat-related illness such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
The same can be said for stopping the spread of the coronavirus, which can have symptoms similar to heat-related illness.
As people get out of the house with the lifting of stay-at-home orders, they should be aware of the warning signs of heat-related illnesses and the continued threat of COVID-19, health officials say.
“Now we’ve got to be twice as diligent,” said Dr. Charles Bar
bera, vice president of prehospital and unscheduled care at Tower Health. “We have the heat. We have COVID. We have to prepare for both of them. We have to know that some of the symptoms are similar in both. But both are very preventable.”
Every year as summer approaches, Barbera and other health care professionals stress the importance of staying healthy when outside in the hot, humid and sunny weather.
“We tell people to obviously stay well hydrated, take frequent breaks and listen to your body,” Barbera said. “If you feel dizzy, tired, weak or confused, go indoors, get cool and rehydrate. We also talk about things like sunburn and using sunscreen.”
The current pandemic has added another layer to Barbera’s yearly message.
“As we kind of maneuver through that, the question came up of how do you know what is COVID-19 and what is heat illness?” Barbera said. “The answer is, well, you don’t know for sure because a lot of things that you might associate with heat illness such as being warm or having a fever, perspiration, sweating, being confused, being weak, being tired and having muscle aches, are the same kind of things that you could get with COVID.”
Preventing both
The answer on what to do to best protect yourself, according to Barbera, is to prevent heat-related illness and COVID-19.
Measures to prevent COVID-19 have become a part of the new normal: wearing masks, staying 6 feet from others, avoiding large crowds and washing hands frequently.
“For heat, we know that we can stay indoors, that we can stay hydrated and that we should pay attention to the warning signs that our body gives us,” Barbera said. “So for both of these kinds of illnesses, prevention is really the way that we need to educate our community to pay attention to.”
Heeding the body’s
warning signs often means the difference between suffering from heat exhaustion and the more rare heat stroke.
With minor heat illness, the body is signaling that something is not quite right. By listening to the body’s warning, it is possible to prevent a trip to the emergency room.
When someone working outside begins to experience heat exhaustion symptoms, such as being overheated and fatigued, taking a break and going indoors to cool off and hydrate can cure the heat exhaustion.
During the summer, particularly during heat waves, there is often an increase in patients seeking treatment for heat-related illness in the hospital.
Barbera said those patients typically work outside on construction and road projects or live alone without anyone to check on them.
Certain medications and medical conditions can put people at higher risk of suffering from heat-related illness. Alcohol can also be a factor because it is a dehydrating agent.
If someone is experiencing heat-related illness symptoms, they should not
delay in seeking treatment.
In the pandemic, health care workers have seen a decrease in patients seeking treatment for heat-related issues, likely attributed to the fear of COVID-19. The hospitals are prepared to treat patients in a safe environment, Barbera said.
“We’re here to tell you that if you have these signs, it is safe and the right thing to do is to go to the hospital,” Barbera said. “If you let yourself go, you could really do more damage. I think that like everything, yes, there is a fear that people are avoiding the hospitals because of the fear of getting COVID and yet with these kinds of heat-related illness and injuries, we’re here to tell people that it is safe and really your health is important.”
Plan ahead
As people spend more time outdoors, be it for work or fun, Barbera encouraged everyone to plan ahead to prevent a trip to the emergency department by lowering the risk of heatrelated illness.
Barbera likened planning to be out in the heat to preparing for and packing the necessary supplies for a picnic.