SPHERE

Ngala, Nigeria: Emergency aid to victims of violence and displacement Sylvain Cherkaoui/COSMOS Opinion

Mortality emergency threshold: A case for revision

06/25/2018 Fabrice Weissman

The crude mortality rate (CMR) is one of the most widely used indicators at MSF and the humanitarian sector to evaluate the severity of a health crisis within a given population. It is widely recognized that a CMR equal to or greater than one death per 10,000 persons a day signifies an emergency situation requiring an immediate response. However, the usage of the standard emergency threshold as “1/10,000/day” is very questionable: it goes against the official recommendations endorsed by humanitarian organizations and ignores the worldwide decline in mortality rates over the last 30 years.

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