Belgium’s summer heatwaves caused nearly 3,000 additional deaths

Belgium’s hottest summer on record brought a heavy human toll: nearly 3,000 additional deaths during three officially recorded heatwaves, according to Sciensano. The public health institute counted 2,935 deaths above the expected level across the three periods.

The first heatwave, from June 18 to July 3, accounted for 2,035 additional deaths. That represented excess mortality of 48.8 percent, the highest recorded during a heatwave across the period studied by Sciensano, which begins in 2000. A peak in ozone, stagnant air pollution and housing that was poorly adapted to extreme heat contributed to the situation, the institute said.

The second heatwave, from July 4 to July 17, produced 535 additional deaths, or 14.8 percent excess mortality. The third, from July 28 to August 16, produced 365 additional deaths, with excess mortality of 7 percent.

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This is the highest excess mortality recorded during a heatwave over the entire period analyzed, since 2000.

Wallonia suffered the sharpest impact in each period. During the first heatwave, it recorded 1,080 additional deaths and excess mortality of 78.2 percent, compared with 65.6 percent in Brussels and 31.2 percent in Flanders. Wallonia’s excess mortality reached 16.5 percent in the second period and 9.9 percent in the third.

Belgium also registered the highest EuroMOMO z-scores in Europe during the weeks of June 22 to 28 and June 29 to July 5. Sciensano cautioned that the measure is designed primarily to compare a country with its own baseline over time. Comparing z-scores across countries can therefore produce misleading conclusions about which country was hit harder.

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EuroMOMO is not the ideal method for comparing excess mortality between different countries.