German Mortality Observation: New Law Mandates Timely Reporting for Early Warning and Monitoring

2023-06-12 09:23:37

Berlin. The current observation of mortality in Germany is consolidated at the Federal Statistical Office and transferred to it as a permanent task. This is provided for in a draft law that is on the agenda of the digital committee of the Bundestag on Wednesday.

So that the data is also up-to-date for effective monitoring, the registry offices are obliged to report the registered deaths to the Federal Office no later than once a month, as was previously the case, but at the latest on the third working day after the entry in the death register. In return, they are exempted from forwarding information to the Robert Koch Institute for the purpose of epidemiological analysis. The Federal Statistical Office is to take on this task in the future.

What are the consequences of heat waves?

“Continuous observation of the number of deaths through systematic death monitoring can e.g. B. serve as an early warning system in the event of an unexpected increase in the number of deaths, so that increased mortality can be recognized at an early stage and its course recorded,” writes the government in the justification for the draft law. In addition, connections with heat waves or other stressful environmental conditions could be established.

At the moment, however, systematic death monitoring is not possible due to the existing regulations, “because the timing of delivery by the registry offices does not meet the high need for timeliness”. In addition, there is “a regionally very different delivery behavior within the previously set deadline, which prevents the uniform provision of regional results at an early stage”. (after all)

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