armenianow.com
August 13, 2004

Too Hot for Health: August brings heat-related ailments

By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter

It happens every August. Armenians say that this intolerable month is
the hottest ever and meteorologists produce data to try and persuade
otherwise.
This week, temperatures reached 36C (97F) and, just like last year and the
year before, etc., heat-beaten residents were complaining that they’d never
seen a summer like this.
But Genadi Kojoyan of the Republic of Armenia Nature Protection
meteorological office says temperatures are the same as last year, an
average of 25C (77F).
Believe the specialists or the sweating citizens, but know this: Most days
it is brutally hot!
And for some, especially elderly and infirmed, the heat can be a danger.
Nune Szamkochyan vice manager of the Shtapognutjun ambulance service says
her unit received 140 calls in one day this week from heat-related trauma.
Her ambulance service takes about 45 people to hospital every day and,
during August, most are the result of the heat.
“August is the most dangerous month,” says Health Ministry advisor Ruslana
Gevorgyan. “People have to be very careful.”

Gevorgyan says the most dangerous time of day is from noon until 6 p.m. and
that over the past several days there has been an increase in the number of
fainting spells during those hours. At those times, she says, people should
avoid being outside.

Shade, water, anything that helps . . .
The heat also leads to other health concerns.
Specialists say that in order to overcome the awful weather, some people
leave Yerevan and others try to find ways to stay cool.
“Next to all pools in the streets of Yerevan that contain water we put
announcements, that swimming is forbidden”, says the republic’s main
sanitary doctor Vladimir Davidyants. “But children swim and even adults put
their legs in. And although pools are disinfected daily the danger is always
apparent, because not only people but also dogs swim in them.”
Nork Hospital infection specialist Ara Asoyan says many peoples’ attempt to
stay cool ultimately leads to a hospital visit. While there are not
currently any cases of water-related infection, there are, he says, a high
number of pneumonia cases and people suffering from chills.
In order to cope with the heat people always drink ice water and sit under
or in front of the air conditioners, Asoyan says “and it is evident what can
happen after that.”