Samuel M. Keim, MD, associate professor, The University of Arizona Department of Emergency Medicine, recently published the first scientific journal article to investigate the public health issue of heat-related deaths among immigrants crossing into Arizona.
"Estimating the Incidence of Heat-Related Deaths Among Immigrants in Pima County, Arizona," published in the April issue of the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, examined the heat-related deaths recorded by the Pima County Medical Examiner between 1998-2003.
The study showed that the number of heat deaths increased dramatically during those years. The most dramatic increase was from 2001 to 2002, in which the number of documented heat-related deaths in Pima County nearly doubled from 50 to 99. Numbers for 2004 to present have not yet been analyzed.
Additional findings include only 8 percent of heat-related deaths reported were U.S. citizens. The study also found that about three-fourths of the victims were male. The majority of heat deaths in Southern Arizona were in wilderness areas of Pima County.
"No one knows how many people actually cross the border illegally, so it's impossible to say for sure that the proportion of deaths is increasing," says Dr. Keim. "But by using apprehension numbers from the U.S. Border Patrol, the study suggests that the increase is not simply a factor of increased numbers of crossings."
"Increasing numbers of immigrants are dying and this is no surprise to anyone familiar with this issue." Co-authors of the article are Mary Z. Mays, PhD, UA Department of Family and Community Medicine, Bruce Parks, MD, UA Department of Pathology and Pima County Medical Examiner, Erik Pytlak, National Weather Service, Robin H. Harris, PhD, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, and Michael Kent, MD, Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Maryland.
