Europe struggles to count heat wave dead

PARIS -- Europe's deadly heat wave claimed more than 2,000 lives in countries outside of France, where an estimated 10,000 have died, according to official reports. Italy, which had refused to release figures, bowed to public outcry over increased deaths and agreed Friday to investigate the toll.

The Associated Press compiled reports from hospitals and local and national governments about the deaths from 18 countries. Outside France, the highest official estimates came from Portugal, with 1,300 deaths, and the Netherlands, with 500-1,000.

At the height of the two-week heat wave this month, unusually large numbers of deaths were reported compared to last year. But European nations are divided over how to go about the task of tallying heat deaths -- the continent's largest hospital, the Allgemeines Krankenhaus in Austria, does not list heat as a cause of death, while the Czech Republic said it hasn't recorded a heat death since 1995.

The French compared mortality rates this summer to last and attributed the difference to the heat. In Spain and Italy, some believe that if the same simple method is applied there, death tolls would skyrocket. No comprehensive European death toll from the heat wave exists.

Italy's Health Ministry bowed to the public pressure Friday and said it would investigate heat deaths by using the same method as France. Previously, the ministry insisted it was almost impossible to determine whether deaths -- particularly among the elderly or gravely ill -- were directly linked to high temperatures.

Public advocacy groups and others had called for an official inquiry, following media reports that estimated death rates rose dramatically during the first half of August, particularly in major cities of northern Italy.

Calls by The Associated Press to several Italian cities found marked increases in deaths compared with last year, although the causes weren't certain.

Genoa had 693 deaths in the first 18 days of August, compared with 475 in the whole month last year, city officials said. In Turin, city officials reported 732 died, more than 500 of them aged over 70, compared with 388 in the same period last year.

In Spain, Health Minister Ana Pastor said her ministry, too, would study mortality from January-August to measure the heat's impact. So far, Spain has tallied 101 deaths, a figure Pastor said was compiled "rigorously." But Spanish newspapers poring over funeral parlor and civil registry records suggested the toll could be far higher.

The El Pais newspaper reported Friday that in the 15 largest cities of the Catalonia region, deaths in July and the first two weeks of August increased by 1,670 from the same period last year.

In France, morgues and funeral parlors overflowed with bodies and hospitals were overwhelmed. The government first estimated that 1,600-3,000 people died from heat-related causes starting on Aug. 7. Then, it said it was "plausible" that 5,000 died before finally agreeing that an estimate of 10,000 by France's largest undertaker was most probably accurate.

Some officials in Spain and elsewhere rejected the French method for counting deaths, saying only deaths directly attributed to the heat must be counted.

"You have no guarantee that all the deaths were due to the heat," said Lluis Salleras, public health director for the Catalan regional government. "Deaths that occurred because the heat aggravated (a disease) are very difficult to label."

An elderly person who dies of hyperthermia -- high fever provoked by heat -- would likely be included in France's tallies but not in Germany's, said Ann-Kathrin Meyer, president of the German Association of Geriatrics. Germany has reported just 30 deaths.

In Vienna, the Allgemeines Krankenhaus reported no deaths because it does not consider heat a cause of death, nor do records show whether heat aggravated a patient's pre-existing condition.

"Unless a doctor gives heat as the reason of death, and that last happened in 1995, we cannot list them as killed by the heat," said Jana Bondyova, of the Czech Statistical Office.

In Podgorica, capital of the tiny former Yugoslav province of Montenegro, authorities registered three deaths blamed on the heat.

Given the record-high temperatures seen in the city, that figure is grossly misleading, said Bogdan Zogovic, a specialist at the city's emergency medical services.

"It is inconceivable to have such a low toll when other European countries are registering deaths in the hundreds and more," he said. "The real numbers must be much higher."

"But we simply have no way of confirming this," he said.

The French government is still tallying a complete count. It also is grappling with the economic cost, promising $525 million in aid Friday to drought-stricken farmers whose animals died by the millions and whose crops withered.

Agriculture Minister Herve Gaymard estimated the damage to French farms at between $1.1 billion to $4.4 billion.

Up to 4.5 million chickens died -- a loss likely to lead to price hikes, France's main poultry farmers' association said. The wheat harvest is expected to drop by 15 percent compared to last year, and corn production by nearly 28 percent, said France's largest cereal growers' union. Many areas of France have had 20-50 percent less rain than normal in six months of drought, the government said.

"The atmosphere in the countryside is extremely morose," said Michel Lemetayer, the head of France's main farmers' union. "Everyday without rain aggravates the situation."