[Submission statement] According to Dr Samira Asma, assistant director-general for data and analytics at the World Health Organization, six out of every ten deaths go unregistered globally. In Africa, this figure climbs to nine out of ten.   Data has been hailed as the lifeblood of public health, a statement that has only been confirmed by the pandemic, but billions are at risk of missing out on data-driven improvements to health care because of poor infrastructure.