BACKGROUND Most of the 48 million annual deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) occur without medical attention at the time of death so that the causes of death (COD) are largely unknown. A review of low-cost methods of obtaining nationally representative COD data is timely. DISCUSSION Despite clear historic evidence of their usefulness, most LMICs lack reliable nationally represe...

background hiv/aids and tuberculosis (tb) are major contributors to the burden of disease in sub-saharan africa. the two diseases have been described as a harmful synergy as they are biologically and epidemiologically linked. control of tb/hiv co-infection is an integral and most challenging part of both national tb and national hiv control programmes, especially in contexts of instability wher...

The Disease Control Priorities (DCP) publications have pioneered new ways of thinking about investing in health. We agree with Norheim, that a useful first step to advance efforts to translate DCP’s global evidence into local health priorities, is to develop a clear Theory of Change (ToC). However, a ToC that aims to define how global evidence (DCP and others) can be used to inform national pol...