C. J. L. Murray and Alan D. Lopez (eds.), The Global Burden of Disease: Summary (Harvard School of Public Health on behalf of the World Health Organization and the World Bank, 1996). 42 pp.
This slim volume is one of a series devoted to a study of and projections to 2020 of global diseases and injuries. The statistics presented are of great interest. To cull just a few: 1) By 2020 tobacco is expected to kill more people than any single disease, surpassing even the HIV epidemic. 2) Deaths from noncommunicable diseases are expected to climb from 28.1 million in 1990 to 49.7 million in 2020, an increase of 77%. 3) Individuals forced to choose between saving the life of a 2-year-old or a 22-year-old would prefer to save the 22-year-old. 4) In the developing regions most deaths in 1990 were caused by noncommunicable diseases (47.4 %), while communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional causes accounted for 41.9%; yet the percentage of deaths from noncommunicable diseases in developed regions jumped to 86.2%. 5) The three leading causes of death in developed regions are ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lung, while those in developing regions were lower respiratory infections, ischaemic heart disease, and cardiovascular disease, further evidence that noncommunicable conditions are greater killers than all the infections. 6) Of the ten risk factors studied for the report, the most significant were malnutrition, poor water, sanitation and hygiene, unsafe sex, alcohol, tobacco, and occupation.
Other volumes in the series cover such topics as the health dimensions of sex and reproduction, the global epidemiology of infectious diseases, perspectives on noncommunicable diseases, and the burden of injuries.
- Irma S. Jarcho
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