The heroin epidemics that spread across Europe in the 1980s resulted in increasing numbers of overdose deaths among opioid users (). Although the annual number of reported deaths peaked around the turn of the millennium, drug overdose still claimed more than 70 000 lives in Europe in the subsequent decade. Contrary to the promising overall trend between 2009 and 2013, when the number of reporte...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the cost and benefits of a national rotavirus childhood vaccination program in Mexico. METHODS A decision-analysis model was designed to take the Mexican health care system's perspective on a comparison of two alternatives: to vaccinate against rotavirus or not. Using published, national data, estimations were calculated for the rotavirus illnesses, deaths, and disabili...

For the first time the incidence and mortality of breast cancer were estimated in French Guiana, an overseas French Territory of South America. A certified cancer registry collected exhaustive data on breast cancer between 2003 and 2005. The age-standardized rate of breast cancer was 47.1 per 100 000 women. The age-standardized death rate was 11.0 per 100 000 women. Although the standardized in...

June 2004 Vol.22 No.6 CME 325 While an estimated 60 000 South Africans are murdered and die in road traffic accidents each year, at least 2.5 million cases of non-fatal injury require emergency care during the same period. This translates to about 66 trauma presentations per 1 000 population per annum. In South Africa the burden of non-trauma emergencies seeking medical care has not been formal...

Background Globally, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has declined in recent years, with 99% of maternal deaths occurring in developing countries. Most (75%) maternal deaths are due to severe bleeding, infections, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, complications of obstructed and prolonged labour, and unsafe abortions. In 2013 in Uganda, the MMR was 360 per 100 000 live births compared with 210 per...

Influenza is an infectious disease which causes significant morbidity and mortality. In the USA, approximately 200 000 hospital admissions and 36 000 deaths occur annualy due to severe influenza infections. Although influenza often causes a simple respiratory infection, it sometimes causes disorders affecting several organs including the lung, heart, brain, liver and muscles or serious life-thr...

In the modern world, with regards to the improvements in human life style and breakthroughs in medical sciences, vectorborne diseases such as malaria are still as public health challenge worldwide [1]. The most important reason is related to the movement capability of the vectors. Therefore, pathogens can be transported throughout the world [2]. Malaria is caused by protozoan parasites of the g...

Cancer mortality statistics for 2015 were projected from the most recent available data for the European Union (EU) and its six more populous countries. Prostate cancer was analysed in detail. Population and death certification data from stomach, colorectum, pancreas, lung, breast, uterus, prostate, leukaemias and total cancers were obtained from the World Health Organisation database and Euros...

More than100years after the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Robert Koch, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most important public health challenges worldwide. Despite significant achievements in communicable disease control in the last century, theWorldHealthOrganization (WHO) estimates that in 2011 there were 8.7 million incident cases of TB and 1.4 million TB-related deaths, as well a...

In September 2008, we measured all-cause mortality in Chiradzulu District, Malawi (population 291, 000) over a 60-day retrospective period, using capture-recapture analysis of three lists of deaths provided by (i) key community informants, (ii) graveyard officials and (iii) health system sources. Estimated crude and under-5-year mortality rates were 18.6 (95% CI 13.9-24.5) and 30.6 (95% CI 17.5...