Disasters and emergencies (natural and otherwise) are on the rise globally and occur regularly in some countries in the Americas, especially those caused by hurricanes, flooding, and earthquakes. Disasters and emergencies have the catastrophic potential to suddenly increase premature mortality, most of which could be potentially avoidable with appropriate preparedness plans in place. To save lives, countries require strong, well-trained, multidisciplinary, emergency response systems, as outlined in the Health Sector Multi-Hazard Response Framework of the Pan American Health Organization. From this perspective, most deaths from disasters and emergencies are avoidable, but the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the effective response capacity of countries in the Region of the Americas. The virus has become a leading cause of death in the Region and has triggered significant regression in decades of progress in reducing premature deaths – both preventable deaths and causes of death that are treatable.

Map of age-adjusted mortality rates and trends for potentially avoidable premature mortality in the Region of the Americas, 2000–2019

This chart and map create the opportunity to explore avoidable premature death trends across multiple countries by year, sex, and the subsets of whether the deaths were preventable or treatable. To select multiple countries to compare, hold down "CONTROL" and click on the countries of interest. They will be filtered on the map and in the trend graph.