Nearly 400 children were killed in 2021, across Europe and Central Asia, as drastically increasing temperatures threatened the lives of the youngest and most vulnerable according to the report issued by the UN’s Children’s Fund on 24 July.
An estimated 377 children were killed in 2021 by rising temperatures across Europe and Central Asia.
In the report ‘Beat the heat: Child Health amid heatwaves in Europe and Central Asia,’ the UN Children’s Fund documents that half of these children died from heat-related illnesses in their first year of life.
UNICEF’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Regina De Dominicis, cautions that “around half of children across Europe and Central Asia – or 92 million children – are already exposed to frequent heatwaves in a region where temperatures are rising at the fastest rate globally.”
She warns that the increasingly high temperatures can have serious health complications for children, especially the youngest ones, even in a short space of time.
“Without care,” she says, “these complications can be life-threatening.”
According to UNICEF, heat exposure has acute effects on children, even before they are born, and can result in pre-term births, low birth weight, stillbirth, and congenital anomalies.
The UN Agency notes that heat stress is a direct cause of infant mortality, can affect infant growth and cause a range of pediatric diseases.
Moreover, the report explains that extreme heat caused the loss of more than 32,000 years of healthy life among children and teenagers in the region.
Given this reality, UNICEF urges governments across Europe and Central Asia to integrate strategies to reduce the impact of heatwaves, invest in heat health action plans and primary health care to more adequately support heat-related illness among children, and also invest in early warning systems, including heat alert systems.