“Elderly people cannot afford to keep homes heated properly.”
 
More than three thousand people died in the week between 13 and 19 February, 90 percent of them aged 65 years or more, the third consecutive week of abnormally high mortality.
 
The flu epidemic and low temperatures are likely causes, but the health minister revealed that the authorities are investigating the cause of this mortality peak.
 
According to the Daily News, citing data provided by Instituto Nacional Ricardo Jorge, the death toll was much higher than normal for this time of year.
 
In Portugal, the average number of deaths associated with influenza is around two thousand, but this was almost double.
 
Throughout Europe, the increased  number of deaths from the flu, pneumonia, hypothermia and cardiac complications have ruptured many pre-hospital services and led to a  lack of inpatient beds.
 
Data from the World Health Organisation show that in Portugal 44 per cent of families with elderly people cannot afford to keep homes heated properly.

http://www.rtp.pt/noticias/index.php?article=530502&tm=8&layout=121&visual=49