Climate change is also increasingly affecting public health, be it through heat, the effects of catastrophes, the emergence of tropical diseases or psychological stress such as doom and gloom.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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The new report by the Advisory Council on Health and Care, which was presented in Berlin on Thursday, cites studies showing that the number of heat deaths has increased sharply.

Across the world, the increase for those aged 65 and over was nearly 54 percent between 2000 and 2020.

Almost 300,000 cases were counted in the heat wave of 2018.

It is assumed that Germany was the third hardest hit in 2018 - even in absolute numbers behind the giant countries of India and China.

In the “summer of the century” 2003, 70,000 people died from the heat in Europe, 7,600 in Germany. People over the age of 74, those in need of care and those with previous illnesses are described as particularly at risk.

In the south of Germany there are more heat deaths than in the north, in the cities more than in the countryside.

In addition to mortality, the susceptibility to illness, the morbidity, is also increased in times of strong solar radiation.

There are apparently connections with heart attacks, diabetes, lung and kidney diseases and mental illnesses.

More traffic accidents and accidents at work are also reported.

According to the research, since 2000 the number of hospital treatments due to dehydration has increased by 177 percent.

On days with a maximum temperature of more than 30 degrees, the hospitalization rate for over 65-year-olds increases by almost 3 percent.

Billions of follow-up costs

Scorching days could also have a negative impact on the national economy, the authors write.

In 2003, this resulted in costs of probably 10 to 17 billion euros in Europe.

In Germany, the drought summers of 2018 and 2019 had an estimated impact of 32 to 37 billion euros.

As far as the follow-up costs for health are concerned, almost 26 billion euros were calculated for France for the years 2015 to 2019.

It is difficult to measure the falling productivity in hot periods, but there is data on increased inability to work.

In Germany, since 2005, the number of sick leave days due to a diagnosis of “damage from heat and sunlight” has risen significantly.

The experts criticize that in Germany the prevention of heat damage is still insufficient.

The situation is better in other countries like France.

There is already a national heat action plan that has reduced mortality and morbidity.

During heat waves, the previously registered people are called and reminded to drink regularly, or they are accompanied to air-conditioned rooms by state employees or volunteers.

Germany has not yet had a national heat action plan, it was criticized.

In order to better protect the population, health and old people's facilities as well as urban planning as a whole would have to be adapted to climate change.

The staff should also be trained accordingly.

Link data better

The member of the Advisory Council, Petra Thürmann, called for the existing data to be better linked in Germany and used for early warning.

Older people living at home could be reached by community nurses and neighborhood help.

The planned electronic patient file would be very helpful, for example to adjust medication, but hardly anyone has it yet.

The chairman of the council, Ferdinand Gerlach, pointed out that digitization is generally inadequate and that data protection is misunderstood.

The federal, state and local governments also did not work together efficiently.

He called the German healthcare system a “fair weather system”.

In his opinion, the strengthening of resistance (resilience) against shocks such as catastrophes, pandemics and climate change is not progressing fast enough in this country.

There are good concepts, but they are not realized.

From this follows: “Our health system is still not well prepared for crises, neither for the consequences of climate change nor for pandemics.” The necessary conclusions have not been drawn from previous challenges such as “Corona”.