The hot bulletins from the Ministry of Health start again. This is what is provided in a circular signed by the Director General of Prevention Francesco Vaia and addressed to Municipalities, Regions and Civil Protection. The national operating system for forecasting and preventing the effects of heat on health, under the guidance of the ministry and the Center for disease prevention and control (with the technical collaboration of the Epidemiology Department of the Lazio Region Health Service – ASL Roma 1 ), allows the central coordination of local prevention activities and the activation of the national heat wave forecast/warning system, called the Heat Health Watch Warning System. This last tool which allows prevention interventions to be modulated based on climate risk levels will be active from today, Monday 20 May, until 20 September (and if risk conditions persist, levels 2 and 3, the alert bulletin will be also sent during the period from 21 to 30 September) in the regional capitals and in the municipalities with over 200,000 inhabitants.
The cities included in the System are 27: Ancona, Bari, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Cagliari, Campobasso, Catania, Civitavecchia, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Latina, Messina, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Pescara, Reggio Calabria, Rieti , Rome, Turin, Trieste, Venice, Verona, Viterbo. The bulletins can be consulted on the ministerial portal in the area dedicated to heat waves. As in previous years, the program of activities includes the daily preparation of the specific city bulletin, sending it to the competent local reference center for socio-health prevention interventions and publication on the website of the Ministry of Health for information general to the population, informs the circular.
The usual 4 risk levels will be indicated in the bulletin: level 0, no risk; level 1, low risk expected for the next 24-72 hours; level 2, high risk expected for the next 24-72 hours; level 3, high risk conditions persisting for 3 or more consecutive days for the next 24-48 hours.
According to the World Health Organization, the circular finally reminds us, the health service must be prepared in relation to the occurrence of possible health emergencies associated with heat waves. “In the month of June a survey will be conducted which will collect information on the activities planned at a local level” and “health recommendations in response to the heat will be available in the dedicated area of the ministerial portal”. A health surveillance system for the population residing in urban areas will also be operational, based on the rapid daily mortality detection system (Sismg) and in some sentinel structures a real-time surveillance system for emergency room access will also be operational. Both systems will allow timely monitoring of health effects in the presence of adverse weather conditions.
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