5 (1 votes)

The mortality rate among men and women who lived in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005 increased by 47% through the first six months of 2006 compared using the rate in the years before the hurricane, based on a study recently published in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, USA Today reports. To measure the combined mortality rate of individuals who returned to New Orleans right after the hurricane and those who remained in other cities, researchers in the New Orleans Wellness Department compared the number of death notices published every month in the New Orleans Times-Picayune through the 1st six months of 2006 towards the number published every month in 2002 and 2004.

According to the study, 1,317 death notices on average were published per month from January 2006 to June 2006, compared with an average of 924 death notices per month in 2002 and 2004. The figures indicate that the death rate has risen to 91 per 100,000 individuals because the storm from 62 per 100,000 individuals, based on the study.

Kevin Stephens, director with the city’s wellness department and lead author with the study, stated, “We’re facing a lot of health care challenges. I’m sure that has a significant impact on mortality.” Stephens added that men and women who no longer live in New Orleans typically have trouble obtaining well being care in their current locations. Jullette Saussy, director of New Orleans EMS, said, “The lack of primary care, of mental well being care and of long waits in emergency rooms all have (worsened) people’s normally controllable chronic diseases.”

A separate study published within the same journal finds that much more than 4,486 doctors from three parishes within the New Orleans area have been displaced, creating a shortage that continues to be a issue at a lot of hospitals. The second study was led by Kusuma Madamala with the American Medical Association (Sternberg, USA Today, 6/22).

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