scholarly journals In Puerto Rico, excess deaths following Hurricane Georges persisted for three months

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis R Santos
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Drinkable Water ◽  
Population Shift ◽  
Climate Disasters ◽  
Death Count ◽  
Climate Disaster ◽  
Excess Deaths

The interruption in basic services such as electricity, drinkable water, and exposure to atypical circumstances following climate disasters increases mortality risk within the settings affected by these events. Recently, some members of academia have argued that no methodology exists to study excess deaths attributable to climate disasters. This study uses death records for Puerto Rico between 1990 and 1998 to assess excess deaths following Hurricane Georges by comparing death counts for 1998 with patterns of variation from the previous eight years. Because no population shift occurred in that decade, other than expected ones based on historical information, the average number of deaths is indicative of expected deaths and the confidence intervals are the ranges of accepted variation. If a count following a climate disaster exceeds the upper limit of the confidence interval these deaths could be considered above the historical ranges of variation and this excess could be associated with the climate disaster of interest. Death counts for September-November 1998 indicate that 819 deaths were in excess of historical ranges of variation. When the year in which Hurricane Hortense is excluded from the construction of the ranges of variation, the excess is 945 deaths. A total of 811 or 937 are missing in comparison to the official death count for this Hurricane. Considering that death counts data structures are comparable across the countries of the world, this method can be used to analyze the effect of other climate disasters.

scholarly journals Evaluation of death count estimates for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis R Santos ◽  
Jeffrey T. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Confidence Intervals ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Initial Estimate ◽  
Excess Death ◽  
Estimation Process ◽  
Climate Disasters ◽  
Death Count ◽  
Excess Deaths

This descriptive finding examines estimates of death counts following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico for September and October 2017. We evaluate the monthly death count estimates and estimates of excess deaths in Puerto Rico based on historical patterns of variability by month for the 2010-2016 and published official death counts for 2017. Official death records from the Puerto Rico Vital Statistics Systems by month and year (2010-2016) were used to produce means and 95% confidence intervals (95% C.I.) for each month. Death count and excess death estimates for September and November 2017 are employed to: (1) illustrate the estimation process and (2) assess the accuracy of these estimates when compared to official death counts for the same period. Estimates produced with incomplete information were 2,987 (95% C.I. 2,900-3,074) and 3,043 (95% C.I. 2,995-3,091) for September and October 2017, respectively. Corresponding official death counts for the same months for 2017 were 2,928 and 3,040. Using estimated death counts, 1,085 excess deaths (95% C.I. 950-1,220) were estimated in November 2017. Using official counts yielded 1,023 excess deaths (95% C.I. 956-1,090). Despite initially overestimating the number of deaths in September and October by 1.04%, subsequent estimate of excess deaths using official death counts was within the 95% C.I. of the initial estimate. Our findings demonstrate the timely production of death count estimates following climate disasters using historical death records and a thorough study of previous experiences.

The Politics of Climate Disasters, Social Inequality, and Perceptions of Government Assistance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Alcañiz ◽  
Ana Ivelisse Sanchez-Rivera
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Responsibility Attribution ◽  
Disaster Assistance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Welfare Politics ◽  
Climate Disasters ◽  
Climate Disaster

This chapter addresses a central research question of the politics of climate disaster: Who do citizens believe responsible for aftermath relief? The authors examine the issue of responsibility attribution in federal disaster assistance—and the related question of who voters believe deserves government disaster relief—against three devastating 2017 hurricanes, with a special focus on the impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico. The authors begin to answer the questions of responsibility and deservingness with survey data collected by them in a pilot study on the Island of Puerto Rico in 2019. They conclude by identifying fruitful links of comparative analysis between climate disaster politics and distributive and welfare politics.

scholarly journals Post-Hurricane Vital Statistics Expose Fragility of Puerto Rico’s Health System

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolando J. Acosta ◽  
Rafael A. Irizarry
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Health System ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
Hurricane Sandy ◽  
Mortality Data ◽  
Monthly Data ◽  
Daily Data ◽  
Unnecessary Death ◽  
Death Count ◽  
Excess Deaths

AbstractImportanceHurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. As recently as May of this year (2018), the official death count was 64. After a study describing a household survey reported a much higher death count estimate, as well as evidence of population displacement, extensive loss of services, and a prolonged death rate the government released death registry data. These newly released data will permit a better understanding of the effects of this hurricane.ObjectiveProvide a detailed description of the effects on mortality of Hurricane Maria and compare to other hurricanes.DesignWe fit a statistical model to mortality data that accounts for seasonal and non-hurricane related yearly effects. We then estimated the deviation from the expected death rate as a function of time.SettingWe fit this model to 1985-2018 Puerto Rico daily data, which includes the dates of hurricanes Hugo, Georges, and Maria, 2015-2018 Florida daily data, which includes the dates of Hurricane Irma, 2002-2004 Louisiana monthly data, which includes the date of Hurricane Katrina, and 2000-2016 New Jersey monthly data, which includes the date of Hurricane Sandy.ResultsWe find a prolonged increase in death rate after Maria and Katrina, lasting at least 207 and 125 days, resulting in excess deaths estimates of 3,400 (95% CI, 3,100-3,700), and 1,800 (95% CI, 1,600-2100) respectively, showing that Maria had a more long term damaging impact. Surprisingly, we also find that in 1998, Georges had a comparable impact to Katrina’s with a prolonged increase of 106 days resulting in 1,400 (95% CI, 1,200-1,700) excess deaths. For Hurricane Maria, we find sharp increases in a small number of causes of deaths, including diseases of the circulatory, endocrine and respiratory system, as well as bacterial infections and suicides.Conclusion and RelevanceOur analysis suggests that since at least 1998, Puerto Rico’s health system has been in a precarious state. Without a substantial intervention, it appears that if hit with another strong hurricane, Puerto Ricans will suffer the unnecessary death of hundreds of its citizens.Key PointsQuestion: How does the effect of Hurricane Maria on mortality in Puerto Rico compare to the effect of other hurricanes in Puerto Rico and other United States jurisdictions?Findings: We estimate about 3,000 excess deaths after Maria, a higher toll than Katrina. Only other comparable effect was after Georges, also in Puerto Rico. For Georges and Maria, we observe a prolonged death rate increase of more than 10% lasting several months. The causes of death that increased after Maria are consistent with a collapsed health systemMeaning: Puerto Rico’s health system does not appear to be ready to withstand another strong hurricane.

A new western Atlantic species ofEurysquilla(Crustacea: Stomatopoda: Eurysquilloidea) with a key to the world species

2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (5) ◽  
pp. 1329-1333
Author(s):  
Débora Lucatelli ◽  
Shane T. Ahyong ◽  
Luis Ernesto Arruda Bezerra ◽  
Paulo Jorge Parreira Dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
New Species ◽  
Western Atlantic ◽  
World Species ◽  
The World ◽  
A New Species

A new species of eurysquilloid stomatopod,Eurysquilla petronioisp. nov., is described from the tropical western Atlantic.Eurysquilla petronioisp. nov. is the fourteenth species of the genus to be recognized worldwide, the fifth species from the western Atlantic and the second from Brazilian waters. It is most closely related toE. maiaguesensisfrom Puerto Rico, but differs chiefly in having an unarmed versus apically spinous rostral plate and 6 or 7 rather than 8–10 teeth on dactylus of raptorial claw. A key to the species of the genus is provided.

scholarly journals Engaging for Puerto Rico: #RickyRenuncia (and #RickySeQueda) during El Verano del 19 and digital identities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo T Perez-Rivera ◽  
Christopher Torres Lugo ◽  
Alexis R Santos-Lozada
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Puerto Rican Diaspora

Between July 13-24, 2019 the people of Puerto Rico took the streets after a series of corruption scandals shocked the political establishment. The social uprising resulted in the ousting of the Governor of Puerto Rico (Dr. Ricardo Rosselló, Ricky), the resignation of the majority of his staff something unprecedented in the history of Puerto Rico; this period has been called El Verano del 19 (Summer of 19). Social media played a crucial role in both the organization and dissemination of the protests, marches, and other activities that occurred within this period. Puerto Ricans in the island and around the world engaged in this social movement through the digital revolution mainly under the hashtag #RickyRenuncia (Ricky Resign), with a small counter movement under the hashtag #RickySeQueda (Ricky will stay). The purpose of this study is to illustrate the magnitude and grass roots nature of the political movement’s social media presence, as well as their characteristics of the population of both movements and their structures. We found that #RickyRenuncia was used approximately one million times in the period of analysis while #RickySeQueda barely reached 6,000 tweets. Particularly, the pervasiveness of cliques in the #RickySeQueda show concentrations of authority dedicated to its propagation, whilst the #RickyRenuncia propagation was much more distributed and decentralized with little to no interaction between significant nodes of authority. Noteworthy was the role of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States of America and around the world, contributing close to 40% of all geo-located tweets. Finally, we found that the Twitter followers of the former governor had indicators of being composed of two distinct populations: 1) those active in social media and 2) those who follow the account but who are not active participants of the social network. We discuss the implications of these findings on the interpretation of emergence, structure and dissemination of social activism and countermovement to these activities in the context of Puerto Rico.

scholarly journals Understanding the Urgent Need for Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the Spanish-Speaking Greater Antilles

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Fuentes-Luque ◽  
Pabsi Livmar González-Irizarry
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Current State ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Caribbean

Even though Audiovisual Translation (AVT) is growing and flourishing throughout the world, it is practically unheard-of in the Caribbean, where accessibility faces an even bleaker existence. The circumstances of the deaf and hard of hearing (also referred to as D/deaf) are no less alarming: social barriers and exclusion are widespread. This paper emphasizes the need to make subtitles accessible in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, specifically on the islands of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, and underscores the challenges faced by the D/deaf communities on each island. Our research focuses on issues like AVT laws and regulations, the habits of viewers of audiovisual (AV) products, and literacy and limitations on each island. This paper also examines the different types of D/deaf audiovisual consumers in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the difficulties each community faces when accessing media and entertainment. Our research reveals the current state of AVT accessibility in this region and provides a foundation for influencing legislators to begin enforcing AVT regulations and drafting SDH guidelines.

scholarly journals Climate Change in Your Backyard: When Climate is Proximate, People Become Activists

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron C. Sparks
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
The World ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
Climate Disasters ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Climate Mitigation Policies

Scientific warnings about climate change continue as climate disasters strike all around the world. There is increasing public support for climate mitigation policies, and major mass protests shed light on the issue. How does climate change impact increase climate activism? I build on a conventional understanding of activism by adding the insight of construal level theory. When climate change is experienced more directly, people are more likely to act because they care more and can link concern to specific actions. Among a sample of Californians (MTurk; n = 604) as climate was perceived as more proximate, respondents were more likely to take action. A survey-experiment conducted using a US sample (MTurk; n = 609) demonstrated that as issues become more psychologically proximate, respondents were more likely to take political action. These results suggest that organizers can activate proximity to mobilize supporters.

scholarly journals Climate, disaster and risk: introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 9s8 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Simon Goldhill ◽  
Georgie Fitzgibbon
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Climate Disasters ◽  
Climate Disaster

This special issue focuses on the intersections of climate, disasters, and development. The research presented here is designed to facilitate climate-resilient decision-making, and promote sustainable development by maximising the beneficial impacts of responses to climate change and minimising negative impacts across the full spectrum of geographies and sectors that are potentially affected by the changing climate.

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

JAMA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 320 (14) ◽  
pp. 1491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis R. Santos-Lozada ◽  
Jeffrey T. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Excess Deaths

Overview of Solid Waste Management of Healthcare and Related Organisations

2021 ◽  
pp. 1336-1352
Author(s):  
Isaiah Adesola Oke ◽  
Lukman Salihu ◽  
Idi Dansuleiman Mohammed ◽  
Asani M. Afolabi
Keyword(s):  
Solid Waste Management ◽  
Calorific Value ◽  
The Other ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
District Health ◽  
Health Clinics ◽  
The World ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Infectious Waste

This chapter provides information on the quantities and properties of healthcare wastes in various types of facilities located in developing countries, as well as in some industrialized countries. Most of the information has been obtained from the literature, while some information has been collected by the authors and from reports available to the authors. The range of hospital waste generation varies from 0.016 to 3.23 kg/bed-day. The relatively wide variation is due to the fact that some of the facilities surveyed may include out-patient services and district health clinics; these facilities essentially provide basic services and thus the quantities of waste generated are relatively small. On the other hand, the reported amount of infectious waste varied from 0.01 to 0.65 kg/bed-day. The characteristics of the components of healthcare wastes, such as the bulk density and the calorific value, have substantial variability. It was concluded that the world has made only slow progress in proper medical in past decades, with dramatic differences among countries and regions.

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