Effective communicable disease control relies on effective response systems and effective response systems rely on effective disease surveillance. A functional surveillance system is essential in providing information for action on priority communicable diseases; it is a crucial instrument for public health decision-making in all countries. Surveillance data provide information, which can be us...

BACKGROUND Ethiopia lacks a complete vital registration system that would assist in measuring disease burden and risk factors. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 (GBD 2015) estimates to describe the mortality burden from communicable, non-communicable, and other diseases in Ethiopia over the last 25 years. METHODS GBD 2015 mainly used cause of death e...

1National Institute for Medical Research, Tabora, Tanzania. 2Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3021, Morogoro Tanzania.3Southern Africa Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance, Morogoro Tanzania. 4Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Dar es Salaam Tanzania.5Department of Disease Control, University of Zambia, Lusaka Z...