Consultant of family and community medicine at King Fahd Medical City Dr. Khalid Al-Amri warned of the exposure to high temperatures as the summer temperature reached its climax in the Kingdom nowadays. He emphasized that this may lead to some diseases caused by the exposure to sunlight and the body's physiological inability to overcome these high temperatures, which may lead to death.
Dr. Al-Amari said in this regard: " The exposure to sunlight for many hours during this period may result in sun strokes as the body's temperature rises above 40 °C, this may sometimes be accompanied by polyneuropathy lead to the failure of important body organs, also the exposure to high sun temperatures by those who are making muscular efforts may cause them to suffer from Febrile Seizures as a result of the high heat of the sun, in addition also to heat exhaustion, which is the less dangerous than the sunstrokes.
He added: "One case out of every five cases of sunstroke is likely to expose to death, especially among children and the elderly. The person's consciousness is often affected, so somebody must around to offer the needed help. But in the case of the heat exhaustion the person will still be conscious, but he may suffer from some symptoms such as loss of the body minerals as a result of the high temperature. The symptom that characterize the heat exhaustion is that the body temperature is low, normal or high but does not exceeding 40° C, this in addition that the symptoms do not include neurological disorders, heart beats, nausea, rapid breathing nor vomiting, this in addition to general feeling of weakness, but the level of consciousness will remain normal. The heat exhaustion is less dangerous than the sunstroke, and the affected patient can be saved.
Dr. Khalid Al-Omari also spoke about the third type of sun exposure, which is a muscle cramp. "Muscle cramps occur as a result of high temperature, mostly among athletes as a result of a great muscular efforts, also occurs to children as a result of staying under the sun for long hours to play away from parental control, it also occurs to the elderly particularly those who have chronic diseases and to some people whose work nature requires staying under the sun for long periods, such as the athletes, military sector or construction workers."
Dr. Khalid pointed out that the percentage of heat-related illness as reported by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2006 showed that there are two and a half cases per 100,000 persons in the United States and 2.1 deaths per million person recorded between the years 2006 and 2010 in the United States according to the reported statistics, indicating that people with less income are more vulnerable to these diseases due to the lack of air conditioning, as well as to the nature of the work outside, This in addition to those people suffering from mental and chronic disorders, and those who take psychoactive, neurological and pressure drugs. But those who subject to exhaustion and heat stress are the obese patients, those who are less fit, those who are less intake of liquids and water, and those who suffer from sleep disorders and frequent viral disorders, diarrhea, heart and diabetic diseases.