![]() The roaring winds of the high-end Category 4 hurricane decimated the island’s fragile and very deteriorated electric system. Puerto Rico disaster hurricane situational awareness syndromic surveillance. Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico on Sept. Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a high-end Category 4 hurricane on September 20, 2017, resulting in the islands most severe natural disaster in modern history. Gaining this situational awareness of medical service use was informative following Hurricane Maria, and, following any natural disaster, the same surveillance methods could be easily established to aid an effective emergency response. Visits for other outcomes, such as mental illness, also increased, but the differences were not statistically significant. Exactly five years after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, killing at least 3,000 residents and causing the collapse of the island's electricity system, the U.S. Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico and surrounding islands in mid-September 2017, severely devastating the islands power grid, medical services and utilities like running water. In particular, there was a small but significant increase in visits involving a medication refill or essential medical equipment. Visit volume comparisons pre- and post-Hurricane Maria were performed using Fisher's exact test.Īnalyses identified an overall increase in NYC ED utilization relating to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria landfall. It compounded destruction caused by hurricane Irma just weeks before. Hurricane María made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. Following the landfall of Hurricane Maria in 2017, the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) implemented an enhanced syndromic surveillance system to characterize related emergency department (ED) visits.ĮD visits with any mention of specific key words ("Puerto," "Rico," "hurricane," "Maria") in the ED chief complaint or Puerto Rico patient home Zip Code were identified from the DOHMH syndromic surveillance system in the 8-week window leading up to and following landfall. Hurricane Maria, the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly a century, made landfall on 20 September 2017. Syndromic surveillance has been useful for routine surveillance on a variety of health outcomes and for informing situational awareness during public health emergencies. ![]()
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