Global Health in Transition; a Synthesis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1996-11-04 edition. Excerpt: ... is slightly longer than most of the others in this report. OBJECTIVES To provide the conceptual and empirical underpinnings for the 1993 World Development Report and to make the best possible use of available data by assessing information from a common perspective. To develop a methodology for measuring the global burden of disease that would account for morbidity as well as mortality. To quantify public, private, and total expenditures on health for all countries and to analyze trends in volumes and allocations to specific activities. To consider alternative allocations of resources on the basis of the burden of disease, health resource availability, and intervention cost-effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS the global burden of disease Despite an uneven and sometimes flawed database, there are clear and profound differences in cause-of-death structures between developed and developing regions. Of the 50 million deaths worldwide each year, 39 million (78 percent) are in developing countries. Communicable, maternal, and perinatal causes account for 40 percent of those deaths, whereas these causes account for only 5 percent of deaths in developed regions. Injuries cause roughly equal proportions of deaths in both developed and developing countries and are invariably more common in males than in females. Their relative importance in cause-of-death structures varies, from greater importance in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and China to lesser importance in developed countries. Major challenges in the developing world are inherent in the disease burden on children ages 0 to 14 and are well known: perinatal conditions, diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, measles, malaria, tetanus, and pertussis. Other diseases, notably tuberculosis, ..