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Published at www.nejm.org January 9, 2008 (10.1056/NEJMp0709003)

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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There is no set formula for accurately tallying deaths from humanitarian crises. When a population becomes destabilized, estimation of mortality is likely to be severely challenged. In the case of a sudden traumatic event, such as a natural disaster affecting an otherwise stable population, health and human service agencies, though compromised, may well be able to facilitate an accurate assessment of deaths through the use of prospective registries of vital events.

In the event of a military invasion and ongoing war, however, the likelihood of obtaining good demographic data plummets. A death registry is unlikely to be developed or maintained, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Ms. Brownstein is a doctoral student in the Department of Genetics at Yale University, New Haven, CT. Dr. Brownstein is a faculty member in the Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Children's Hospital Boston, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School — both in Boston.

This article (10.1056/NEJMp0709003) was published at www.nejm.org on January 9, 2008. It will appear in the January 31 issue of the Journal.

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