Introduction Given the burden of road traffic injuries (RTIs) in South Africa, economic evaluations of prevention interventions are necessary for informing and prioritising public health planning and policy with regard to road safety. Methods In view of the dearth of RTI cost analysis, and in order to understand the extent to which RTI-related costs in South Africa compare with those in other l...

The food, tobacco and alcohol industries have penetrated markets in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with a significant impact on these countries’ burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Tangcharoensathien and colleagues describe the aggressive marketing of unhealthy food, alcohol and tobacco in LMICs, as well as key tactics used by these industries to resis...

The study aimed to describe worldwide levels and trends of tobacco control policy by comparing low and middle income countries with other income categories from 2007 to 2014 and to analyze the corresponding relation to recent changes in smoking prevalence. Policy measure data representing years 2007 to 2014 were collected from all available World Health Organization (WHO) reports on the global ...

Summary Mental disorders (including substance use disorders, dementia, and self-harm) account for a substantial burden of disease economic costs in low-income middle-income countries (LMICs), yet they attract little funding. External resources are urgently needed but evidence on investments is scarce. This Health Policy paper uses 35 elite interviews documentary analyses to examine how...

Between 13% and 49% of the world’s population develop neuropsychiatric disorders at some point in their life [1]. More and more evidence indicates that mental disorders and problems are common in all countries studied [2–4], and supports earlier projections that the burden of mental health problems is increasing in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) as well [5]. Most people with these disab...

Deaths due to NCDs in LMICs are expected to increase from 30.8 million in 2015 to 41.8 million by 2030 [1]. While improvements in life expectancy, lifestyle and urbanisation go some way to explaining why more people in LMICs are affected by NCDs, it is less clear why these populations are contracting NCDs at a younger age and with worse outcomes than in high–income countries (HICs) [2]. Despite...

Little is known about the excess mortality caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infection in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We retrospectively obtained microbiology laboratory and hospital databases of nine public hospitals in northeast Thailand from 2004 to 2010, and linked these with the national death registry to obtain the 30-day mortality outcome. The 30-day mortality i...

The growth of accreditation programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) provides important examples of innovations in leadership, governance and mission which could be adopted in developed countries. While these accreditation programs in LMICs follow the basic structure and process of accreditation systems in the developed world, with written standards and an evaluation by independent ...

Hepatitis B is preventable and hepatitis C is treatable even if still at a high cost; most people who are infected with hepatitis B or C virus have not been screened yet and are unaware of their infections; and most countries, especially developing countries, do not have a national plan to prevent and control viral hepatitis. The advent of effective new treatments for hepatitis C has been an ag...

The unequal distribution of neurosurgical resources and diseases in the world contributes to inequality. Eight in ten neurosurgical cases needing essential neurosurgical care are found in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); however, LMICs lack the neurosurgical resources to address these needs. Besides, where neurosurgical care is available, it is not financially accessible to the majorit...