Use of Death Counts From Vital Statistics to Calculate Excess Deaths in Puerto Rico Following Hurricane Maria

Application of death counts to calculate excess deaths in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria on Sept 20, 1017, is discussed. Accurate estimates of deaths from environmental disasters are important for informing rescue, recovery and policy decisions. Using preliminary death counts through October...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2018-10, Vol.320 (14), p.1491-1493
Main Authors: Santos-Lozada, Alexis R, Howard, Jeffrey T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cause of Death
Confidence intervals
Cyclonic Storms - mortality
Death
Deaths
Disaster relief
Disasters - statistics & numerical data
Fatalities
Humans
Hurricanes
Mathematical analysis
Mortality
Puerto Rico - epidemiology
Vital Statistics
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Summary:Application of death counts to calculate excess deaths in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria on Sept 20, 1017, is discussed. Accurate estimates of deaths from environmental disasters are important for informing rescue, recovery and policy decisions. Using preliminary death counts through October 2017, excess deaths related to the hurricane were estimated at 1085. However, other estimates suggest that the number of excess deaths may be as high as 4645.
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.2018.10929