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(Photo= Yonhap news) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Minyoung] This year, more than 2,000 people have been admitted to emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke and heat exhaustion, and there have been 12 fatalities.
According to the Disease Control and Prevention Agency's heat illness statistics released on August 8, 88 heat illness cases were reported on August 7 alone, bringing the total number of heat illness cases since the emergency room monitoring system was activated on May 20 this year to 2,004.
This is similar to last year's figure of 2,005 cases for the same period. The agency operates a monitoring system through 507 emergency medical institutions nationwide to track the number of heat illness cases in emergency rooms.
As the peak of this summer's heatwave continues, the number of heat illness cases has remained high since the latter part of last week.
A week ago on August 1, 117 cases were reported; August 2 had 82 cases; August 3 had 183 cases; August 4 and 5 each had 119 cases; and August 6 had 90 cases. The total number of heat illness cases from August 1 to 7 is 798, accounting for 39.8% of the year's total heat illness cases.
This month alone, there have been 12 deaths due to heat illness. Of the total heat-related deaths this year, 63.2% occurred in the past week.
Among the cumulative heat illness cases this year, 77.6% are male and 22.4% are female. By age, 31.8% are over 65 years old, with 228 cases (11.4%) among those over 80.
By occupation, the most affected are manual laborers (20.9%), unemployed individuals excluding the homeless (14.2%), and skilled workers in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (9.2%).
Most cases occurred during daylight hours, but there were also cases reported between 7:00 PM and midnight (7.5%), midnight and 6:00 AM (1.9%), and 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM (10.2%).
The majority of cases occurred outdoors, with workplaces (29.4%) and fields (15.5%) making up 78.7% of the locations. Indoor cases, including workplaces (8.1%) and homes (6.9%), accounted for 21.3%.
Heat exhaustion is the most common illness, accounting for 54.1% of cases, followed by heatstroke (22.5%), heat cramps (13.4%), and heat syncope (8.6%).
알파경제 Kim Minyoung Reporter(kimmy@alphabiz.co.kr)
