Summer health watch summary: 7 August 2014
Published 24 July 2014
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1. Summary of environmental hazards
1.1 Heatwave
On 16 July 2014 a level 2 heatwave alert (alert and readiness) was issued for the West Midlands, East Midlands, South East, East of England and London regions. On the 20 of July 2014 the heatwave alert level reverted to level 1 (heatwave and summer preparedness programme) for all regions. England has remained at heatwave alert level 1 since.
1.2 Solar UV radiation
The Public Health England (PHE) solar radiation monitoring stations across the UK reported typical peak UV Index values for this time of year. However, the weather was much more changeable than the previous 2 weeks. The only site with a clear day was Lerwick (31 July 2014) with a UV Index of 5 (moderate). Camborne, Cornwall, experienced the highest UV Index of 6 (high); Swansea, London and Chilton recorded peaks of UV Index 5 (moderate) on some days; with Leeds, Belfast, Glasgow and Inverness recording peak values of 4 (moderate).
1.3 Air pollution
Daily information on air quality and measured levels of air pollution across the UK is available from the UK AIR: Air information resource
2. Health impacts
2.1 Syndromic surveillance
Heatstroke consultations decreased in week 31. There has been a slight rise in diarrhoea and gastroenteritis consultations over the past week.
2.2 Laboratory surveillance
Gastrointestinal disease activity is around seasonally expected levels. The number of laboratory reports of the major gastrointestinal pathogens (campylobacter, salmonella, cryptosporidium, norovirus) in the season to date are similar to the 5-year seasonal average. However, the number of Salmonella Enteritidis PT 14B laboratory reports nationally has exceeded expected levels in recent weeks and is the subject of a national outbreak investigation. Salmonella Enteritidis PT 1 has also recently exceeded expected levels in parts of the country.
2.3 Mortality surveillance
In weeks 29 and 30 of 2014, no excess all-cause mortality by week of death was seen across the UK through the EuroMOMO algorithm.