40 million deaths go unreported every year: study

As many as 40 million deaths go unrecorded each year while another 40 million are born unknown to demographers, according to a new Lancet study which suggests cell phones could help fix the problem.
In a sobering finding for global health authorities and governments around the world, a group of leading epidemiologists say two in three deaths globally - or 40 million people - go unreported and one in three births - another 40 million people - go unregistered.
University of Melbourne Laureate Professor Alan Lopez, one of The Lancet series lead authors, has been leading a global campaign to improve how countries capture civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS).

The four-paper Lancet series promote the case to change CRVS systems to collect more reliable and timely data.
"Policy should be informed by accurate and timely data. Poor quality data equals poor decisions, which in turn leads to lost opportunities to improve population health," Lopez said.
In remote areas where there are no doctors, CRVS improvements could include family members of deceased responding to a limited number of questions about symptoms experienced by the deceased which an algorithm using big data samples would then analyse to record a most-likely cause of death, Lopez said.

"In many cases, that algorithm can record cause of death more accurately than a physician," he said.

He said other technology advances could also be exploited such as using mobile phones to transmit information about recent cases of births and deaths.
"We are on the cusp of a quantum leap in using technology to greatly improve the availability and quality of birth and death data even in the poorest countries," Lopez said, adding that "mobile phones are now common virtually everywhere."
"Indeed, accurately recording birth registration and cause of death is vitally important to leaders around the world.
"To put this in perspective, 140 countries, or 80 per cent of the world's population - do not have reliable cause of death statistics," Lopez said.

"Countries that have functional CRVS systems report higher life expectancies and lower maternal and infant mortality rates indicating that the availability of good birth and death data is influencing the health policies of those nations," Lopez added.